tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57594627921037547702015-07-30T12:24:50.570+01:00LeoxiconLeo Selivan's blog for EFL/ESL teachers. Activities, ideas and useful tips with a lexical touchLeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-22752683284153968692015-05-26T19:53:00.000+01:002015-06-22T20:33:56.254+01:00Lexical activities united<div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">This is a quick post that consolidates some activities for teaching collocations and chunks that I’ve posted on this blog and elsewhere, specifically the ones organized in series which I refer to as Cycles.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"></span><br /><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">I’ve demonstrated most of these at various conferences, most prominently at the IATEFL conference in Glasgow in 2012, but video recordings of the sessions have been taken down while the<a href="https://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/" target="_blank"> IATEFL Online</a> website is being revamped.&nbsp;</span>So I pulled all the activities together into one table for the convenience of the teachers and student teachers I work with as well as visitors to this blog.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I hope it makes it easy to navigate and find the activity that you’re after:<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br /><br /></div><div id="4cycles"><iframe height="660" overflow="hidden" src="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PaxFyK5gSGzGPKcF6waikxi0d3wQ0Sgufrgjl9rddCw/pub?embedded=true" width="520"></iframe></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-50948832041137920422015-04-11T12:19:00.002+01:002015-05-30T17:19:46.605+01:00AAAL2015 convention: highlights, insights and implications<div class="MsoNormal"><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WARVwOHTa1Y/VShFyiIc5fI/AAAAAAAAIhw/bq1H8wCfwbw/s1600/IMG_20150323_104122.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WARVwOHTa1Y/VShFyiIc5fI/AAAAAAAAIhw/bq1H8wCfwbw/s1600/IMG_20150323_104122.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rod Ellis presenting</td></tr></tbody></table><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">While in Toronto for <a href="http://www.tesol.org/convention2015" target="_blank">TESOL 2015 convention</a>&nbsp;last month, I also attended - for the first time - the AAAL (American Association of Applied Linguistics) <a href="http://convention2.allacademic.com/one/aaal/aaal15/" target="_blank">2015 conference</a>. The annual AAAL conference is conveniently held right before TESOL which gives ELT professionals travelling from all corners of the world an opportunity to attend both events back to back: the more classroom-oriented TESOL and its more highbrow cousin AAAL.<br /><br />Here are some highlights:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><a name='more'></a><br /></div><h3><span style="color: #783f04;">Good news for incidental vocabulary acquisition</span></h3><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><h4><span style="color: #783f04;">Speaker:</span> <span style="color: #444444;"><a href="http://www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/people/rell035" target="_blank">Rod Ellis</a>, University of Auckland</span></h4><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Renowned applied linguist Rod Ellis described an experiment he conducted with his PhD student to see whether students can pick up new vocabulary while listening. The answer is yes. Although relative gains (in receptive knowledge) were small, repeated listening (3 times) had an overall positive effect. As if anticipating an argument from the audience that repeating a listening task might seem as unauthentic, Ellis defended the validity and authenticity of repeated listening saying that it’s quite common in real life to record and then listen to the recording a few times. Interestingly, additions of pre-listening activities, such as topic preparation (activating background knowledge) and inferencing training (teaching students to infer meaning from context) didn’t contribute neither to comprehension nor incidental vocabulary learning.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DBll2DUSs2c/VShaFYcZcvI/AAAAAAAAIiQ/QAFOKSb7pU4/s1600/IMG_20150323_102629.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DBll2DUSs2c/VShaFYcZcvI/AAAAAAAAIiQ/QAFOKSb7pU4/s1600/IMG_20150323_102629.jpg" target="_blank" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Target items in Ellis's study</td></tr></tbody></table>After the session I asked Ellis if his findings contradicted those of Chang &amp; Reid (2008) – see my post <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2012/03/listening-template.html" target="_blank">HERE</a> – which he had mentioned in his talk. In Chang &amp; Read’s study of various techniques which facilitates learners’ listening comprehension, topic preparation came out on top, followed by repeated listening.&nbsp; Ellis conceded that perhaps topic preparation is more effective but raised concerns about its pedagogical validity: would you want to spend&nbsp; 40 minutes of classroom time on activating background knowledge - and do it in L1? Overall, Rod Ellis used the study to support his repeated calls for integrated approach to teaching vocabulary with listening or reading.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><h4><span style="color: #783f04;">Practical implications</span></h4><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Texts – both reading and listening – should be used as vehicles for learning lexis and not only for comprehension or skills training. After a listening activity (with focus on comprehension) focus on vocabulary. For example, give students the transcript with some words missing and ask them to fill in the gaps using a bank of words.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><h4><span style="color: #783f04;">Link</span></h4>See my article on how to derive maximum linguistic benefit out of texts: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/revtexts" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/revtexts</a> The article is about reading texts, but the same ideas are applicable to listening.<br /><br /></div><h3><span style="color: #783f04;">Processing chunks: same or different for L1 and L2?</span></h3><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #783f04;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><h4><span style="color: #783f04;">Speaker:</span> <span style="color: #444444;"><a href="http://www.ilas.nagoya-u.ac.jp/en/SUGIURA_Masatoshi.html" target="_blank">Masatoshi Sugiura</a>, Nagoya University</span></h4><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">There are 3 positions related to how chunks of language are stored in the brain:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul><li><b><span style="color: #444444;">Words-and-rules</span></b> model as espoused by Chomsky and Pinker where mental storage consists of words and a repository of rules.&nbsp;I am simplifying horrendously here but, put simply, chunks are not stored in the brain as separate entries but are assembled on an as-needs basis by combining words and grammar</li><li><b><span style="color: #444444;">Frequency-threshold</span><span style="color: #783f04;"> </span></b>approach – supported, among others, by Alison Wray. This view holds that chunks that are highly frequent (e.g. <i>I don’t know, It doesn’t matter, I’ve never been there…</i>) are stored as separate entries in our mental lexicon, thus making processing more efficient.</li><li><b><span style="color: #444444;">Continuous</span></b> approach which&nbsp;does not posit a separate, ‘holistic’ storage for frequent chunks (e.g. <i>I don’t know</i>) and on-line assembly for less frequent items (<i>I don’t drink</i>). Instead, frequency is considered a factor across the board: the more frequently we hear or see a phrase, the more entrenched it is in the brain and more readily activated in future.</li></ul><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Sugiura’s et al’s experiment shows that the continuous approach accounts better at how language users store information about chunks; and this applies to both L1 and L2 speakers. This explanation contrasts with Alison Wray’s hypothesis that chunks are stored as ‘wholes’ for native (L1) speakers but not for learners (L2 speakers) who tend to analyse chunks into constituent parts. For example, when coming across&nbsp;“This view holds" (see above) they will break it down into "view" and "hold" without (mentally) recording information about the two items occurring frequently together. On the contrary, Sugiuira’s experiment provides evidence that L2 learners (in his study, Japanese speakers) are sensitive to the frequency effects just like L1 speakers. The respondents were presented with four-word combinations - some more frequent (e.g.&nbsp;<i>all over the place</i>) than others (e.g.&nbsp;<i>all over the city</i>) - see more examples in the photo below. The more frequent the combination was, the shorter the respondents' reaction time was.<br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-65c5xqSeT2Q/VShf3IZW8cI/AAAAAAAAIis/ZP1q212Nb9A/s1600/IMG_20150323_110808.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-65c5xqSeT2Q/VShf3IZW8cI/AAAAAAAAIis/ZP1q212Nb9A/s1600/IMG_20150323_110808.jpg" target="_blank" width="320" /></a></div><h4><span style="color: #783f04;">Practical implication</span></h4><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Because less frequent chunks are encountered… well, less frequently, teachers should explicitly draw students’ attention to them.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><br /></o:p></div><h4><o:p><span style="color: #783f04;">Insight gained (or, rather, confirmed)&nbsp;</span></o:p></h4><div class="MsoNormal">Frequency is the primary factor driving the acquisition process. The more frequent the linguistic item in the input, the earlier it will be acquired. Seen from this perspective, every instance of usage (hearing, seeing or using a phrase) influences its future processing, activation and use.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;"></div></div><h4><span style="color: #783f04;">Link</span></h4><div class="MsoNormal">Connectionism lends further support to this usage-based view of language acquisition where language knowledge is built from exemplars found in language input. See my recent post on connectionism <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2014/12/connectionism-lexical-chunks.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>.<br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><h3><span style="color: #783f04;">Who's afraid of big bad phrasal verbs?</span>&nbsp;</h3><div><h4><span style="color: #783f04;">Speaker:</span>&nbsp;<span style="color: #444444;"><a href="http://www.eng.cuhk.edu.hk/eng/about/academic_staff_detail/27" target="_blank">Helen Zhao</a>, Chinese University of Hong Kong</span></h4></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Phrasal verbs are considered problematic for teachers and learners alike. Whether it is their inherent nature or if it is one of <a href="http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/teacher-induced-neuroses" target="_blank">teacher-induced neuroses</a>, phrasal verbs are a source of never-ending anxiety in the classroom. On the research front, a number of studies have shown (Laufer &amp; Eliasson 1993, Liao &amp; Fukuya 2004, Siyanova &amp; Schmitt 2007) that learners avoid phrasal verbs opting instead for their one-word synonyms (that is based on assumption that they have one-word synonyms which yours truly doesn’t agree with – see why&nbsp;<a href="http://origin.misc.pagesuite.com/pdfdownload/18c3381e-cc60-4823-a1c0-dc012c358087.pdf" target="_blank">HERE</a>)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">More avoidance is normally observed in lower proficiency learners (Liao &amp; Fukuya 2004) and with figurative phrasal verbs as opposed to phrasal verbs whose meaning is literal. Interestingly, Zhao’s study found to the contrary. Two groups of learners - intermediate and advanced - had to answer a series of multiple choice questions with phrasal verbs. The phrasal verbs (PVs) in the study were classified as follows:<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="background: #D9D9D9; border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-background-themecolor: background1; mso-background-themeshade: 217; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 231.05pt;" valign="top" width="308"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt;">Figurative PVs - High Freq&nbsp; </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">(<i>let down</i>)</div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 231.05pt;" valign="top" width="308"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt;">Literal PVs - High Freq&nbsp; </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">(<i>finish up</i>)</div></td> </tr><tr> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 231.05pt;" valign="top" width="308"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt;">Figurative PVs - Low Freq&nbsp; </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">(<i>let up</i>)</div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 231.05pt;" valign="top" width="308"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt;">Literal PVs - Low Freq&nbsp; </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">(<i>meet up</i>)</div></td> </tr></tbody></table></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Low frequency items were avoided more, confirming once again the frequency effects discussed above, but the tendency to avoid figurative PVs found in earlier studies was not observed. The most interesting finding, which provoked a lot of discussion and questions from the audience, was that advanced learners tended to avoid PVs more than intermediate ones.<br /><br /></div><h4><o:p><span style="color: #783f04;">Insights</span></o:p></h4><div class="MsoNormal">Although the Zhao's findings contradict those of previous studies, for example those of Laufer (Batia Laufer who was in the audience had a lot to say about the paper), the fact that phrasal verbs with literal / non-figurative meanings are avoided more actually make sense to me. Figurative phrasal verbs whose meaning is more opaque might actually be more "noticeable" because of their uniqueness, for example <i>He <b>let </b>me <b>down</b></i>&nbsp;or <i>She <b>hung up </b>on me. </i>Conversely, phrasal verbs whose meaning is more literal and semantically transparent often contain particles that learners may see as redundant. For example, in&nbsp;<b><i>meet up</i></b>, <i><b>come over</b></i>&nbsp;or <i style="font-weight: bold;">finish off </i>the particles (<i>up</i>, <i>over</i>, <i>off</i>) do not add much to the 'core' meaning of <i>meet</i>, <i>come </i>and <i>finish</i> respectively.</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F6EC3u1voOM/VSj4rcs8zoI/AAAAAAAAIjc/yI92h8GyeYI/s1600/IMG_20150324_134047.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="163" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F6EC3u1voOM/VSj4rcs8zoI/AAAAAAAAIjc/yI92h8GyeYI/s1600/IMG_20150324_134047.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Free hour to <b>l</b></i><b style="font-style: italic;">ook around</b> <i>Toronto <br />before <b>getting back </b>to the conference&nbsp;</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But why was the avoidance rate higher among advanced learners? Could it be&nbsp;because the advanced students chosen for the experiment were English majors (i.e. future English teachers)? And, as English majors, they were taught to use more sophisticated, higher register language, perhaps determined by the written model where phrasal verbs are less frequent than in spoken English?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><br /></div><h4><span style="color: #783f04;">Practical implication</span></h4><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Although the exact reason why advanced learners in Zhao's study avoided phrasal verbs isn't clear, what is clear is that the advanced level is not all about mastering less frequent and more sophisticated words but often revisiting seemingly easy combinations of already known words. Multi-part verbs are a good example of such items: they consist of both high-frequency verbs and very frequent particles and may be perceived by learners as too colloquial and 'low-level'. In fact, they are frequent in both spoken and written English. Gardner and Davies (2007) estimate that learners will encounter a phrasal verb in every 192 words of English, that is nearly 2 PVs per page of written text.<br /><br /></div><h4><o:p><span style="color: #783f04;">Links (updated)</span></o:p></h4><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p>For a list of most frequent phrasal verbs in English, see Gardner and Davies's corpus study in TESOL Quarterly - click <a href="http://203.72.145.166/tesol/tqd_2008/VOL_41_2.pdf#page=105" target="_blank">HERE</a></o:p><br /><br />For a more updated, pedagogically oriented list, see the PHaVE list compiled by <a href="http://ltr.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/12/08/1362168814559798.abstract" target="_blank">Garnier &amp; Schmitt</a> - &nbsp;click <a href="http://phave-dictionary.englishup.me/" target="_blank">HERE</a>&nbsp;(<i>Thanks to <a href="https://eflnotes.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/and-the-classroom-stars-aligned-in-class-use-of-the-phave-dictionary/" target="_blank">Mura Nava</a> for pointing me in its direction)</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><br />Overall, it was an interesting and, as you can see from this post, insightful conference. It's a pity that many of those researchers who attended and presented at it didn't stay on for the TESOL convention in order to disseminate the knowledge gained from their research. Likewise, it's a pity that those who came to TESOL didn't arrive in Toronto early enough to take in AAAL in order to stay up to date with the fascinating research being conducted in our field.<br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div></div><h3><span style="color: #783f04;">References</span></h3><div>Gardner, D., &amp; Davies, M. (2007). Pointing out frequent phrasal verbs: A corpus-based analysis. <i>TESOL Quarterly 41</i>,&nbsp;339-360.</div><div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Laufer, B., &amp; Eliasson, S. (1993). What causes avoidance in L2 learning: L1-L2 difference, L1-L2 similarity, or L2 complexity? <i>Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 15</i>, 35-48.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Liao, Y. &amp; Fukuya, Y. J. (2004). Avoidance of Phrasal Verbs: The Case of Chinese Learners of English. <i>Language Learning, 54</i>,&nbsp;193–226.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Siyanova, A. &amp; Schmitt, N. (2007). Native and nonnative use of multi-word vs. one-word verbs. <i>IRAL 45</i>, 119-139.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-64824285676496952712015-03-22T22:40:00.001+00:002015-03-25T17:47:52.107+00:00A matter of semantics: same concepts, different divisions<div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ymaMKIw2tPM/VQ3ejhNohZI/AAAAAAAAHtc/a7DPoUVmtm8/s1600/containers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ymaMKIw2tPM/VQ3ejhNohZI/AAAAAAAAHtc/a7DPoUVmtm8/s1600/containers.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>Eighteen containers in assorted shapes and sizes on display in the corner of the room.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Fourteen EFL teachers organized in small groups according to their L1: English, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, French. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Aim: categorise the objects; discussion in the group should be held in your L1<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Purpose: to show that the same objects will fall into different categories depending on the language you use to categorise them.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><a name='more'></a><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">For example, the English-speaking group divided the objects which you can see in the picture into 8 categories: bottle (4), container (5), tube (2), can (2), jar (1), case (1), jug (1), case (1), canister (1). A British English speaker further divided cans into a can (soft drink) and a tin (of tuna). Hebrew speakers came up with 7 categories, with the&nbsp;can/tin of tuna ending up in the same category as “English” containers (including tupperware) while Russian speakers grouped the notorious can/tin together with the jar under the same title “banka”.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Idea: not mine. It was inspired by a study conducted by Malt, Sloman and Gennari (2003) who tried to understand the relations between semantic categories among speakers of 3 languages: (American) English, (Argentine) Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. Only in their study they used 60 containers (I couldn’t carry so many from home). After sorting the objects into piles, the participants of the study were asked to name the objects (in their native language). The English speakers had a total of 7 names, i.e. all the objects were divided into 7 categories, while the Chinese group had only 5 categories. Interestingly, the Spanish speaking group ended up with 14 different names – some of their categories with only one or two objects in them. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The most interesting thing about the experiment, however, is the degree of variation in distribution of names. For example, what the Spanish speakers described as “frasco” or “frasquito” (diminutive form) consisted of 28 items; most of these corresponded to what English speakers called “jar” (19 items), but also included what English speakers referred to as “bottle” (6 items) and “container” (3 items). Another group of six items Spanish speakers described as “bidon” was comprised of 3 “English” jugs, 2 containers and 1 bottle. Other bottles (English speakers identified a total of 16) ended up with different Spanish labels, for example, botella (3 items), mamadera (2 items) and envase (2 items). Curiously, this last, "envase” group also included 4 objects described by English speakers as “containers” and other sundry objects.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The comparison between Chinese and English showed the same pattern. Unlike their Spanish counterparts, though, Chinese speakers had one large group of 40 items called “Ping2a ” which encompassed all jars (19) as well as 13 bottles and 8 containers. Another 3 containers were placed with 2 bottles and 5 cans into one category Chinese speakers labelled as “Guan4”.</div><o:p></o:p><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><h4><span style="color: #783f04;">What does it all have to do with English language teaching?</span></h4><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The study is published in the fascinating volume entitled<a href="http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/language-mind" target="_blank"> <i>Language in Mind</i></a>&nbsp;which presents a modern take on - and perhaps an attempt to revive - the (weak) version of the theory of linguistic relativity. Also known as the Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis, the theory faced harsh criticism and was considered dead for most of the second part of the 20th century. According to the theory, the structure of one’s language influences one’s understanding of the world. In other words, language affects thought.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Although Malt et al’s study doesn’t actually prove that language affects thought, it clearly demonstrates how different languages divide the world differently. And that’s what I wanted to show in my experiment: how because of carving up reality differently words rarely have an exact equivalent in another language.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Even for concrete nouns, such as the ones describing the containers, semantic fields of L1 and English do not necessarily overlap. And if different languages do not “agree” on what categories different items should be assigned to, distinctions between how more abstract notions are expressed verbally across languages become even fuzzier. For example, English “convenient” and “comfortable” correspond roughly to the same word in Russian (“udobniy”), thus often leading to confusion and, inevitably, wrong word choices among Russian learners of English (*The sofa is convenient). The phenomenon when&nbsp;a word in a language has two (or more) equivalents in another language is known as "<b>semantic split</b>". Or take an example from Turkish: both "scenery” and “view” are rendered into Turkish as “manzara”. Semantic partitioning of the world may also be different in different language due to cultural or historical reasons. For example, many languages do not distinguish between “to blame” and “to accuse” or “to be accused” and “to be guilty”.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Word meanings are a messy area. The lack of direct correspondence between L1 words and L2 words is something beginner learners often find difficult to come to terms with. But we, language teachers, should disabuse them of the notion that an English word = (is equal to) an L1 word relatively early on. As much as L1 provides initial support when clarifying meaning of a new word, it is also important to get across to learners how the English word may behave differently from its L1 equivalent in relation to the meaning it denotes and other words it is associated with, i.e.&nbsp;<a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2013/05/context-or-co-text.html" target="_blank">co-text</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /><ul><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Do you have examples of similar messy relationships between certain words in English and your students’ L1?</span></li></ul><div><br /></div><ul><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Do you do anything in class to draw your students’ attention to the fact that semantic fields of two words – English and its L1 equivalent – rarely overlap 100%?</span></li></ul></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><h4><span style="color: #783f04;">References</span></h4><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Malt, B.C., Sloman, S.A. &amp; Gennari, S. (2003). Speaking vs. thinking about objects and&nbsp;actions.&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 24px;">In D. Genter&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 24px;">&amp; S. Goldin-Meadow (Eds.)&nbsp;</span><em style="line-height: 24px;">Language in mind: Advances in the&nbsp;study of language and thought</em><span style="line-height: 24px;">&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 24px;">(pp. 81-111).&nbsp;Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-25045278695958475692015-01-04T17:35:00.001+00:002015-01-13T09:19:05.059+00:00News quiz 2014 - Follow up<b><i>Activities for reviewing language (vocabulary and some grammar) from News Quiz 2014</i></b><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q_IxuLbfK7E/VKmJRWVQrVI/AAAAAAAAGpU/DHmJkC7Bxlg/s1600/Rosetta_-_comet_fly-by%2B(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q_IxuLbfK7E/VKmJRWVQrVI/AAAAAAAAGpU/DHmJkC7Bxlg/s1600/Rosetta_-_comet_fly-by%2B(1).jpg" height="112" width="200" /></a></div></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image by DLR &nbsp;<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ARosetta_-_comet_fly-by.jpg" target="_blank">via Wikimedia Commons</a><br />[<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/de/deed.en" target="_blank">CC BY 3.0 de</a>]</td></tr></tbody></table>As a follow-up to last week's news quiz, here are seven pages' worth of vocabulary practice and review activities (in 2 levels). Some follow "traditional" format from <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/search/label/Quiz" target="_blank">previous years</a>, others are new, for example, the Intermediate level activities include Netspeak, a web tool I blogged about <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2012/05/lexical-priming.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>.<br /><br />I hope you and students enjoy them as much as you enjoyed the quiz. If you still haven't seen this quiz, click <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2014/12/news-quiz-2014.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>:<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br /><b>Intermediate level:&nbsp;click&nbsp;<a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35483975/blog/2014%20news%20quiz%20vocab%20review_inter.doc" target="_blank">HERE</a>&nbsp;to download Word doc or preview below:</b><br /><br /><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="0.7080062794348508" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_35933" scrolling="no" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/251656795/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;access_key=key-PBoY4HKuyNT1UwA2cBEV&amp;show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe><br /><br /><br /><br /><b>Advanced level: click&nbsp;<a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35483975/blog/2014%20news%20quiz%20vocab%20review_advanced.doc" target="_blank">HERE</a>&nbsp;to download Word doc or preview below:</b><br /><b><br /></b><b><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="0.7080062794348508" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_40076" scrolling="no" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/251656815/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;access_key=key-I4PAcAgoD7M7YggQPa9n&amp;show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe></b><br /><b><br /></b><br /><b><br /></b><b>ANSWERS: click <a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35483975/blog/2014%20news%20quiz%20vocab%20review_ANSWERS.pdf" target="_blank">HERE</a> to download or preview below:</b><br /><b><br /></b><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="0.7080062794348508" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_65201" scrolling="no" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/251656818/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;access_key=key-J3uE6aFYo2Oqjb8aopi8&amp;show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe><br /><br />Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-78881164409757284132014-12-28T18:30:00.000+00:002015-01-04T17:37:09.981+00:00News quiz 2014<b><i>Traditional lexically-enriched end-of-year news quiz for the first lesson of the new year<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dNL25VzkIUo/VKBnqzayu-I/AAAAAAAAGn0/fWe8hOKNBV0/s1600/14848289439_dfbc1f961f_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dNL25VzkIUo/VKBnqzayu-I/AAAAAAAAGn0/fWe8hOKNBV0/s1600/14848289439_dfbc1f961f_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/quintanomedia/14848289439/" target="_blank">Anthony Quintano</a>&nbsp;via Flickr [<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank">CC BY 2.0</a>]</span></td></tr></tbody></table></i></b><br /><br />In keeping with the tradition started when this blog was born (4 years ago today), here is my end-of-year news quiz. &nbsp;As usual, it's available in two levels (advanced and intermediate) and comes complete with a 9-page teachers guide with ideas on how the quiz can be used in class. A word of reminder: the quiz is not meant to test your students' general knowledge but to expand their vocabulary.<br /><br />Over the years I've begun to feel that every year my quiz contains the same language such as <i>cause controversy, got into hot water, battle with drug addiction, came to an abrupt end&nbsp;</i>to describe politicians' faux pas and celebrity deaths that occur with unwavering regularity every year. So this year, a slew of new lexical chunks make their debut in the quiz: <i>quirky sense of humour</i>, <i>eligible bachelor</i> and <i>ruffle feathers </i>to name but a few<i>.&nbsp;</i>See for yourself.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />Activities for reviewing lexis will be published, as usual, in about a week.<br /><b><i>Update: click <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2015/01/news-quiz-2014-vocabulary.html" target="_blank">HERE</a> for language review activities</i></b><br /><br /><h3><span style="color: #666666;">Quiz</span></h3><div><span style="color: #783f04;"><b><i>Scroll down for downloads:&nbsp;</i></b></span><br /><span style="color: #783f04;"><b><i>quiz in 2 levels and detailed teachers' notes</i></b></span></div><ol><li>Citizens of which European country went to the polls in September 2014 for a referendum on independence and voted against separation?&nbsp;</li><li>Despite violent riots on the streets, the World Cup went ahead as planned last summer in Brazil. The host nation, however, lost 7-1 in the semi-final. Which country inflicted a humiliating defeat on Brazil?&nbsp;</li><li>With the death toll exceeding 4,500, the Ebola virus continued to spread through West Africa. In what country did the outbreak of the deadly virus start?&nbsp;</li><li>It was a turbulent year for the airline industry. Which airline suffered two major incidents within a matter of months, both involving the state-of-the art Boeing 777?&nbsp;</li><li>Legendary Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher was left in a coma after a serious head injury in February 2014. What was he doing when he sustained the injury?&nbsp;</li><li>One of the most viral videos of the year, which clocked up more than four million Youtube views, featured a cat and a toddler. What did the cat do to capture the attention of the worldwide audience?&nbsp;</li><li>After a lengthy trial Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to five years in jail in October 2014. What crime was he convicted of?&nbsp;</li><li>Europe and the US imposed economic sanctions on Russia after it seized control of a Ukrainian peninsula with a predominantly Russian-speaking population. What’s the name of the peninsula?&nbsp;</li><li>After 10 years in space, the space probe Rosetta accomplished its mission in November 2014 when it reached its destination. What celestial body did it touch down on?&nbsp;</li><li>Brutal beheadings and summary executions carried out by the militant group ISIS sparked worldwide outrage in 2014. What does ISIS stand for?&nbsp;</li><li>&nbsp;Hollywood celebrities, fans and President Obama himself paid tribute to the actor Robin Williams, who took his own life in August 2014. Famous for a quirky sense of humour in his comic roles, Williams’s serious performances also earned him wide acclaim and an Oscar. For which film was he awarded the Oscar?&nbsp;</li><li>&nbsp;More than 40 people were taken hostage in December 2014 at a Sydney café. Which famous chocolate brand does the café belong to?&nbsp;</li><li>Russia spared no expense on the Winter Olympics, which will go down in history as the costliest Olympic Games ever. Which country won most gold medals at the Winter Olympics?&nbsp; </li><li>Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor finally tied the knot in an intimate wedding in Venice in 2014 and said that marriage “feels pretty damn great”. What’s his name?&nbsp;</li><li>&nbsp;Throughout the summer of 2014, millions of people uploaded to Youtube videos of themselves dumping ice water on their heads in the name of charity. What charitable cause did the online campaign aim to raise money for?&nbsp;</li><li>&nbsp;Novak Djokovic won the Wimbledon 2014 Men’s Final for a second time since 2011. Just like him, the winner of the 2014 Women’s Final first tasted victory at Wimbledon in 2011. What’s her name?&nbsp;</li><li>Cross-dresser Conchita Wurst raised eyebrows and ruffled feathers in some European countries when (s)he won the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 while sporting a full beard. What country did the bearded lady represent?</li></ol><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Happy New Year!</b><br /><b><br /></b><b></b><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Advanced level: click&nbsp;<a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35483975/blog/2014%20news%20quiz_adv.doc" target="_blank">HERE</a>&nbsp;to download Word doc or preview below:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="undefined" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_22764" scrolling="no" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/251182293/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Intermediate level: click&nbsp;<a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35483975/blog/2014%20news%20quiz_inter.doc" target="_blank">HERE</a><span id="goog_600716405"></span><span id="goog_600716406"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a>&nbsp;to download Word doc or preview below:</b><br /><b><br /></b></div><b><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="undefined" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_42172" scrolling="no" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/251182070/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe></b><b><br /></b><br /><b><br /></b><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b><b>Click <a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35483975/blog/2014%20news%20quiz%20T%20notes%20with%20answers.pdf" target="_blank">HERE</a>&nbsp;to download the Teachers Notes or preview below:</b></b></div><br /><b></b><b><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="undefined" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_77470" scrolling="no" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/251181970/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe></b><b><br /></b><b><br /></b></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-8913754708257321272014-12-19T11:11:00.000+00:002014-12-20T13:59:57.020+00:00Closely connected<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WpDnXTfoIb0/VJP5d_ryNRI/AAAAAAAAGWY/_Jre_eT5R08/s1600/2781151983_4fb7b60e00_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WpDnXTfoIb0/VJP5d_ryNRI/AAAAAAAAGWY/_Jre_eT5R08/s1600/2781151983_4fb7b60e00_z.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhamshu/2781151983/" target="_blank">Sudhamshu Hebbar</a> on Flickr [CC BY 2.0]</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">An article written by the British linguist Vyvyan Evans entitled <a href="http://aeon.co/magazine/culture/there-is-no-language-instinct/">“Language Instinct is a Myth”</a> which I shared on Twitter the other day triggered <a href="https://twitter.com/leoselivan/status/542014772116746240" target="_blank">a lively discussion with my colleagues</a>. One of the questions raised on Twitter was how come the idea that we are born with a built-in language capacity (aka <i>the innateness hypothesis</i>) has prevailed for so long and Chomsky, its main promoter, is part of all Master's in TESOL programmes if the theory has largely been discredited (Scott Thornbury asks the same question on his in <a href="http://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/x-is-for-x-bar-theory/">X is for X-bar Theory</a>).<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><a name='more'></a><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">This was indeed the case on my MA programme: Behaviorism and Chomsky took up a large part of two of my Psycholinguistics courses while such a fascinating, more recent theory as Connectionism received scant or almost no attention. Now that I am on the giving end, i.e. giving rather than listening to lectures, I was also surprised at the lack of references to Connectionism in an SLA course syllabus which I inherited (and revamped completely). Chomsky, on the other hand, is such an enduring staple of TEFL/TESOL courses that even BA students come to the course already knowing him – or at least having heard his name.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #783f04;">For an overview of Chomsky's theory see&nbsp;</span><a href="https://canlloparot.wordpress.com/sla/chomsky/" target="_blank">THIS POST</a><span style="color: #783f04;">&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #783f04;">by Geoff Jordan or</span><span style="color: #783f04;">&nbsp;</span><a href="http://justawordinthegrandstory.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/universal-grammar/" target="_blank">THIS POST</a><span style="color: #783f04;">&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #783f04;">by Kylie Barker.</span></b></div><div><span style="color: #783f04;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Connectionism is also conspicuously absent from Vyvyan Evan’s criticism of Chomsky although it provides much a stronger argument against the innateness hypothesis. What is Connectionism and how is it connected to this blog?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><h3><span style="color: #783f04;">It doesn’t sound right but I can’t explain why… </span></h3><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The word “grammar” usually conjures up in the learner’s – and teacher’s – mind images of verb tables and rules which can be memorized and tested. Indeed, some rules – or rather rules of thumb – exist and can be called upon when punctuating a sentence (add an apostrophe after plural nouns ending with –s) or spelling a word (“i before e except after c”). Learners can be given useful rules such as: We add –s/-es to make the plural form or most nouns or add –d/-ed to make the past tense of regular verbs. The rules that can be formulated and verbalized are known as <b>explicit</b> rules. A greater number of linguistic rules though – probably much greater than explicit rules – are <b>implicit </b>rules, i.e. rules which competent language users (not only native speakers!) know but cannot express verbally. The knowledge of implicit rules is evident when we can tell if a sentence is correct or incorrect just because it sounds right. This intuitive feel for grammaticality, however, has nothing to do with the sixth sense; it has sound psychological foundations. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><h3><span style="color: #783f04;">Artificial neural networks&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #783f04;">(explained as simply as possible)</span></h3><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q4gcnRRkBSk/VJP4zDct6HI/AAAAAAAAGWQ/6mc3bEfY-fo/s1600/Neural_signaling-human_brain.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q4gcnRRkBSk/VJP4zDct6HI/AAAAAAAAGWQ/6mc3bEfY-fo/s1600/Neural_signaling-human_brain.gif" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Via <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neural_signaling-human_brain.gif" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a> [CC BY-SA 3.0]</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">The human brain is made up of a massive number of neurons meshed into complex networks. In order to understand how information is stored across neural networks of the brain, artificial neural networks can be created on the computer. Artificial neural networks simulate how the brain functions when processing information and consist of many units (representing neurons) and their connections (representing synapses), hence the name “connectionism”.</div><br /><div class="MsoNormal">Already in the 1980s, connectionist experiments shed considerable light on the processes underlying human cognition and, specifically, language acquisition. For example, a computer simulation created by Rumelhart and McClelland (1986) was “trained” to predict irregular past forms of the verbs it had not previously encountered. For example, after the network “learned” that <i>found </i>is the past form of <i>find,</i> and <i>bound </i>is the past of <i>bind, </i>the network would produce <i>wound&nbsp;</i>in response to <i>wind</i>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kcqagpk-eGs/VJP83cYAm-I/AAAAAAAAGWk/_WGD-i1q3cw/s1600/320px-Neural_network.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kcqagpk-eGs/VJP83cYAm-I/AAAAAAAAGWk/_WGD-i1q3cw/s1600/320px-Neural_network.svg.png" height="125" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Via <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neural_network.svg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a> [CC BY 1.0]</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Now on to something truly phenomenal. Neural networks have been shown to exhibit the same “faulty” behaviour as humans. The next set of verbs which was fed into Rumelhart and McClelland’s network consisted of both irregular and regular (-<i>ed</i>) verbs. As the number of regular verbs began to grow, the network started to produce errors such as *<i>broked</i> instead of <i>broke</i> or *<i>taked </i>instead of <i>took</i>. But after more training, regular and irregular verbs fell into place as the network recovered and&nbsp;<o:p></o:p>started producing correct forms again.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">As you probably know, this process is very similar to the developmental stages language acquirers – mainly native speakers but also L2 learners – go through. Initially they produce correct irregular forms, such as <i>went</i> and <i>took</i>, but, as encounters with regular verbs become more and more frequent (<i>washed, cleaned, started, finished</i>), they backslide to *<i>goed </i>and *<i>taked</i>. Chomskyans would, of course, explain this as learners starting to grapple with the rules of the past simple and overgeneralising them to irregular verbs. But Rumelhart and McClelland’s neural network displayed the same psycholinguistic phenomena as <b>overgeneralization</b> and <b>backsliding</b> – in the absence of any grammar rules!&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><h3><span style="color: #783f04;"><b>Rules or connections?</b></span></h3><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Connectionists offer a simple but compelling explanation of this phenomenon: the neural network learned the pattern on which the past tense is formed as a result of exposure to linguistic data. Regular verbs showed such a strongly consistent pattern in the input that the connections formed between units in response to regular verbs outweighed all the connections activated by irregular verbs.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Posing a radical challenge to the classical rule view of language, connectionism posits that language learning has nothing to do with learning rules, although language behaviour may ultimately appear to be rule-governed. Just like the artificial network was not taught the rules of the past simple, mental representations of rules need not be present in explicit form anywhere in the brain. According to connectionism, language acquirers merely form mental associations between various elements (phonemes, morphemes, words etc) which frequently occur together in language input.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><h3><span style="color: #783f04;">Connectionism and lexical chunking</span></h3><div class="MsoNormal">You are probably wondering what it all has to do with this blog. In fact, connectionism and its younger brother “<a href="http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/faculty/ogrady/Emergentism.pdf" target="_blank">emergentism</a>” are compatible with the idea of lexical chunking and provide a solid psycholinguistic base for the Lexical approach. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul><li><a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-is-your-favourite-chunk.html" target="_blank">Chunks </a>consist of words that often go together:&nbsp; <i>of course</i>, <i>I hope so</i>, <i>to make things worse, it’s been a long time since…, </i>i.e. they are frequently co-occurring elements in language&nbsp;</li><li>Learning a language is not a matter of mastering explicit grammar rules as I have argued <a href="file:///C:/Users/leosel/Desktop/leoxicon.blogspot.com/2013/02/grammar-rules-chunks-strike-back.html" target="_blank">HERE</a></li><li>Learning chunks can help establish important patterns which pave the way to grammar acquisition - see <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2013/09/chunks-highway-to-fluency.html" target="_blank">HERE</a></li><li><a href="http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/revising-lexis-quality-or-quantity" target="_blank">Repetition</a>&nbsp;plays a crucial role – learners need multiple exposures to “strengthen the connections” between co-occurring elements</li><li>Although explicit teaching of grammar rules does not result in implicit knowledge it may speed up the process of grammar acquisition through <a href="http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/content/50/3/273.full.pdf+html" target="_blank"><i>noticing</i></a></li></ul><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">So, to return to the discussion with my fellow professionals on Twitter: should Chomsky be banished from TESOL programmes’ syllabi? Certainly not. As a starting point in SLA research it merits analysis and discussion. Without understanding Chomsky’s Universal Grammar hypothesis, it would be hard, for example, to explain Krashen* or to grasp the significance of the nature vs. nurture debate as regards language acquisition. But the question remains why Chomsky's view has dominated the field for so long. Is it because, as <a href="http://aeon.co/magazine/culture/there-is-no-language-instinct/" target="_blank">Vyvyan Evans claims</a>, it's simple?<o:p></o:p><br /><br />What do you think?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><h3><span style="color: #783f04;">References</span></h3>Rumelhart, D. E.,&amp; McClelland, J. L. (1986).On learning the past tense of English verbs. In J. L. McClelland, D. E. Rumelhart &amp; the PDP Research Group (Eds.),<i> Parallel distributed processing: Explorations in the microstructure of cognition, Vol. 2: Psychological and biological models</i> (pp. 216–271). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. <br /><br />_____________________<br /><div class="MsoNormal">* Interestingly - and perhaps ironically - Michael Lewis draws heavily on the work of Krashen, who is clearly a Chomskyan<o:p></o:p></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-4305127855688732902014-11-29T21:57:00.001+00:002014-11-30T10:34:38.849+00:00Learners' use of collocations: insights from the research 2<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2nuhCjBAffk/VHo7t4ALO4I/AAAAAAAAF8M/6PelU85nwTM/s1600/3319831643_61d26cbf29_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2nuhCjBAffk/VHo7t4ALO4I/AAAAAAAAF8M/6PelU85nwTM/s1600/3319831643_61d26cbf29_z.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Perform surgery" or "carry out surgery"?<br />Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/austinsamaritans/3319831643" target="_blank">Austin Samaritans</a>&nbsp;via Flickr [CC BY-SA 2.O]</td></tr></tbody></table>What kind of collocations are most mistake-prone:<br />strong (e.g. <i>honk the horn,&nbsp;</i>s<i>hrug shoulders</i>), medium-strong (e.g.&nbsp;<i>wage a war, fail a test</i>), medium-weak (e.g.&nbsp;<i>perform an experiment, reach a compromise</i>) or weak (e.g.&nbsp;<i>see a film, read the newspaper</i>)?<br /><i><br /></i><i><br /></i><i></i><br /><a name='more'></a>In the previous post in the series (see <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2013/10/collocations-insights-research.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>), I looked at some studies focusing on collocational errors across different levels of proficiency and what causes them. One of the studies I cited was by Nadja Nesselhauf (I think it was her doctoral thesis). The study is also interesting in that she tried to pinpoint which collocations are more problematic for learners.<br /><i><br /></i>But first of all,<br /><br /><h3><span style="color: #783f04;">What counts as a collocation?&nbsp;</span></h3>Learners often have problems with collocations, but what kind of collocations cause more difficulty? On the one hand, they are idioms, such as <i>foam at the mouth</i>, which are technically collocations (verb + noun), and on the other hand, "looser" combinations of words such as <i>pretty girl</i> or <i>watch TV</i>, although seemingly obvious, are also considered collocations. Enclosed between these two extremes lies a vast array of collocations of varying fixedness.<br /><br />Howarth (1998) proposed a continuum ranging from free collocations (e.g. pay the rent) to somewhat restricted collocations &nbsp; and figurative idioms (e.g. sweeten the pill). Or using Howards’s example with the verb <i>blow</i>, the continuum looks as follows:<br /><br /><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="background: #BFBFBF; border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-background-themecolor: background1; mso-background-themeshade: 191; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.0pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b>free collocations<o:p></o:p></b></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.0pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b>restricted<o:p></o:p></b><br /><b>collocations</b></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.05pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b>figurative idioms<o:p></o:p></b></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.05pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b>pure idioms<o:p></o:p></b></div></td> </tr><tr> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.0pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i>blow a trumpet<o:p></o:p></i></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.0pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i>blow a fuse<o:p></o:p></i></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.05pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i>blow your own trumpet<o:p></o:p></i></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.05pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i>blow the gaff<o:p></o:p></i></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><i><br /></i><i>Note: figurative idioms (e.g. take steps) are different from pure idioms in that their meanings are much easier to understand, i.e. meaning can be understood by looking at the components.</i><br /><br />Howarth points out that the most problematic area for learners is the muddy middle ground. Indeed, his study which compared the production of collocations in native and advanced non-native academic writing, concluded that non-natives tend to make more mistakes with restricted collocations.<br /><br />Let's now turn to Nesselhauf's study of collocation use in advanced students' writing (L1 German). She ordered the collocations on a scale similar to that of Howarth's. &nbsp;However, the collocations that were found in the middle of the continuum were further divided into two groups. After Howarth, she uses the word "restricted", but for ease of explanation I’ll refer to collocations as weak or strong.<br /><br /><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="background: #BFBFBF; border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-background-themecolor: background1; mso-background-themeshade: 191; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 115.5pt;" valign="top" width="154"><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="apple-style-span"><b>strong<o:p></o:p></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">(idiomatic)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 115.5pt;" valign="top" width="154"><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="apple-style-span"><b>medium-strong<o:p></o:p></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">(a lot of restriction)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 115.55pt;" valign="top" width="154"><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="apple-style-span"><b>medium-weak<o:p></o:p></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">(little restriction)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 115.55pt;" valign="top" width="154"><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b>weak<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">(free collocations)<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr><tr style="height: 20.25pt; mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 20.25pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 115.5pt;" valign="top" width="154"><div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><i><span dir="LTR">shrug your shoulders<o:p></o:p></span></i></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 20.25pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 115.5pt;" valign="top" width="154"><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i>fail a test<o:p></o:p></i></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 20.25pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 115.55pt;" valign="top" width="154"><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i>conduct research<o:p></o:p></i></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 20.25pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 115.55pt;" valign="top" width="154"><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i>see a film<o:p></o:p></i></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><br />Medium-weak (or little restriction) implies that, a verb collocates with many nouns, yet there are some limitations on its combinability. For example, <i>exert</i> can collocate with <i>influence / pressure / control / power</i> but not with the word<i>&nbsp;rights</i>or, similarly,&nbsp;<i>perform an experiment</i> / <i>analysis</i>&nbsp;/ <i>ceremony </i>/<i> task </i>are all possible<i> </i>while *<i>perform an interview&nbsp;</i>is not.<br /><br />Medium-strong collocations, on the other hand, are comprised of verbs that attract only a handful of possible nouns, such as <i>fail an exam / test</i>, i.e. their collocational range is narrower. Which brings us to the main point of this post:<br /><br /><h3><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Which type is most problematic for the learner?</span></b></h3>Interestingly, the highest number of errors occurs in the collocations with less restriction i.e. combinations which lean towards the weaker end of the spectrum (medium-weak). At the same time, the lowest number of mistakes occurred in medium-stronger collocations, such as <i>fail a test</i> and <i>pay attention</i>.<br /><br />How does the researcher explain this finding? She points out that students may not be aware of collocational restrictions. For example, they assume that <i>reach</i>, which collocates with <i>agreement, compromise, conclusion, decision</i>, <i>goal</i> can also go with <i>aim&nbsp;</i>(cf.<i>&nbsp;achieve an aim </i>or <i>achieve a goal</i>), which seems semantically possible. In other words, they may perceive certain combinations as possible although collocationally they are not.<br /><br />It may also be the case that stronger collocations (e.g. <i>pay attention</i>) are more salient and easier to remember while weaker ones allow more variation and do not seem to show a logical pattern.<br /><br />Her suggestion for language practitioners therefore is to adopt different strategies when presenting these two types of collocations. While dealing with stronger/more restricted collocations she suggests that it is enough to point out one or two collocates that the verb can take and stress that these are the only possible combinations. For example, <i>run a risk </i>but not *<i>run the danger (of).</i><br /><br />Conversely, when dealing with weaker/less restricted collocations, teachers should point out that they cannot be used freely and highlight semantically possible but collocationally impossible combinations using contrastive analysis. For example, when teaching German speakers (although the same suggestion may apply to any L1) it will be worth pointing out that <i>reach </i>can collocate with <i>agreement, decision, conclusion, compromise&nbsp;</i>or <i>goal</i>, but not <i>*aim</i> and contrasting it with the similar verb <i>achieve</i>.<br /><br /><h3><span style="color: #783f04;">Conclusions</span>&nbsp;</h3>Although the research mainly concerned verb+noun collocations, it would seem that stronger collocations with other parts of speech, e.g. noun + noun (<i>sibling rivalry</i>) or adjective + noun (<i>terminal illness</i>) pose less of a problem for the teacher or the learner because their idiomaticity or fixedness is more noticeable, that is provided learners have been trained to “<u>notice</u>". However, collocations which lean towards the weaker end of the strong-weak spectrum cause more difficulty because learners often map new English words onto their L1 equivalents without realising that they may differ from L1 in their collocational behaviour.<br /><b style="color: #783f04;"><br /></b><br /><h3><b style="color: #783f04;">Some practical suggestions</b></h3>Based on this and my <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2013/10/collocations-insights-research.html" target="_blank">previous Insights from the research post</a>, here are some practical classroom suggestions.<br /><br />When teaching collocations:<br /><h4><span style="color: #783f04;">1. Provide <b>negative evidence</b>.</span>&nbsp;</h4><span style="font-weight: normal;">For example, when teaching (or reviewing) <i>earn </i>give a few common collocates, e.g. <i>money, a living, respect</i> but not *<i>earn experience</i>:</span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span> <i>earn money / a living / respect</i><br /><i><strike>earn experience</strike>&nbsp;-&gt; gain experience</i><br /><br />You can do this using collocation forks - see <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2011/05/cycles-of-recycling_08.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>.<br /><br />The same things can be done with adjectives, for example:<br /><i>mild weather / winter / flavour / surprise</i><br /><i><strike>mild light</strike> -&gt; soft light</i><br /><br /><h4><b><span style="color: #783f04;">2. Use Contrastive analysis.</span></b>&nbsp;</h4>If you know your students' L1 you can often anticipate their errors if you know that similar meaning is expressed in their L1 using a different collocation, i.e very often an equivalent noun will take a different verb. Contrast new items with students L1 to highlight possible issues. For example, <i>ask a question</i>, not <i>*make a question </i>for Spanish speakers (cf.&nbsp;<i>hacer una pregunta</i>) or&nbsp;<i>make a speech</i> and not *<i>pronounce a speech</i> for French speakers (cf.&nbsp;<i>prononcer un discours</i>)<br /><br />Some English verbs that can be problematic are:<br /><i>achieve, accomplish, comply (with), conduct, cope (with), overcome, perform, submit</i><br /><div><br /></div><h4><span style="color: #783f04;">3. Draw <b>attention to</b> <b>form</b>.&nbsp;</span></h4>When reading or listening, students often do not pay attention to form. This is especially the case with&nbsp;<span style="color: #444444; font-weight: bold;">semantically transparent</span><span style="color: #783f04; font-weight: bold;"> </span>collocations, such as&nbsp;<i>run a risk</i>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<i>hold a conference,&nbsp;</i>whose meaning can be easily decoded when encountered in the input. When it comes to production, however, learners will often turn to L1 and combine words based on their L1 intuitions. Draw your students' attention to new combinations of already known words as well as seemingly "easy" or obvious collocations such as <i>have an accident </i>or <i>give an example.</i><br /><br /><h4><span style="color: #783f04;">4. </span><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Explicitly teach collocations</span>&nbsp;</b></h4>(as opposed to single words). Many words do not have one-to-one correspondence with L1. Even words that seem to have a direct translation equivalent will often behave differently in English, namely, have different collocations. Very often, these are so called <b><span style="color: #444444;">cognates</span></b>, i.e. words in different languages with the same etymology, such as&nbsp;<i>execute</i> = <i>exécuter</i> (Fr.) = &nbsp;<i>ejecutar </i>(Sp.) It is very important to teach these with their lexical partners.<br /><br />I know some of these echo my plea from one of my previous posts entitled <i>Start teaching lexically</i> but if you haven't read it I suggest checking it out. Click <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2013/01/start-teaching-lexically.html" target="_blank">HERE</a><br /><br /><br /><h3><span style="color: #783f04;">References&nbsp;</span></h3>Howarth, P. (1998). The phraseology of learners’ academic writing. In A.P. Cowie (Ed.), <i>Phraseology: Theory, analysis, and applications</i> (pp 161–186). Oxford: Oxford University Press. <br /><br />Nesselhauf, N. (2003). The use of collocations by advanced learners of English and some implications for teaching. <i>Applied Linguistics, 24</i>(2), 223–242. Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-88219545194114277512014-10-31T20:33:00.000+00:002014-12-20T18:06:01.553+00:00On (and off) the wall vocabulary activities<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_Buc0WLyDIg/VFP5X54ER8I/AAAAAAAAFEM/hJhz0BrZ6lU/s1600/the-interior-of-the-254577_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_Buc0WLyDIg/VFP5X54ER8I/AAAAAAAAFEM/hJhz0BrZ6lU/s1600/the-interior-of-the-254577_1280.jpg" height="141" width="200" /></a></div><i>I often make students (and teachers I work with) get out of their seats. I think movement in the classroom is important whether you believe in the now<a href="http://malingual.blogspot.com/2012/10/learning-styles-facts-and-fictions.html" target="_blank">&nbsp;hotly debated concept of learning styles</a>&nbsp;or because&nbsp;<a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2013/12/going-experimental-at-tesol-france.html#bodytalk" target="_blank">cognition is embodied</a>. Apart from onion ring debates and mingling activities, there are many movement activities you can do using classroom walls.</i><br /><i></i><br /><a name='more'></a>A&nbsp;<a href="http://www.etprofessional.com/four-walls-four-boards.aspx" target="_blank">recent article</a> in English Teaching Professional suggested ideas for taking advantage of all four classroom walls using whiteboards. I would like to share some ideas on how I use walls in my classrooms without any additional whiteboards required.<br /><br />All you need is paper (usually cut-up) and some Blu-tack<br /><div id="picture"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zpvi18nt0II/VJW4m1vfJ_I/AAAAAAAAGW4/mRoNomdqNjk/s1600/cut-174860_640.jpg" height="200" width="150" />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2IKLxR_vZ0g/VFP1yl4Kb_I/AAAAAAAAFDk/WF1EAhwpBRE/s1600/IMG_20141031_224204.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2IKLxR_vZ0g/VFP1yl4Kb_I/AAAAAAAAFDk/WF1EAhwpBRE/s1600/IMG_20141031_224204.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a></div><div id="picture"><img bp.blogspot.com="" g="" http:="" iovkl72c="" jpg="" s1600="" src="" xr_vz0g="" yl4kb_i="" /> </div><br /><h3><span style="color: #783f04;">Taking strips of paper OFF the walls</span></h3><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R60VMaXObM0/VFP2e1P1BXI/AAAAAAAAFDs/8Hd6iAwRgx4/s1600/IMG_20141031_181915.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R60VMaXObM0/VFP2e1P1BXI/AAAAAAAAFDs/8Hd6iAwRgx4/s1600/IMG_20141031_181915.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a>This is a “kinaesthetic” alternative to a vocabulary matching activity. Stick the words on the walls around the classroom and hand out to students (in groups) lists of <u>different</u> definitions. Students have to walk around and take off the walls the words that match their definitions. The activity can also go the other way around: students have a list of words and find definitions on the walls. Instead of definitions you can also supply example sentences - my definitions resemble example sentences, anyway, for example:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>When you do not have a steady job you can still earn money by doing ________ jobs </i>(odd)</blockquote><br /><h3><span style="color: #783f04;">Round the room clozes / Strips of paper stay ON the walls&nbsp;</span></h3>Similar ideas to the ones above can also work without taking things off the walls. Students can be given a page with <b><span style="color: #444444;">collocations forks</span></b> (see related post <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2011/05/cycles-of-recycling_08.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>), walk around the room and find missing key words. Here's just an example - normally you would have at least 10 forks.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fJkVhoKcNEA/VFPYueZSf_I/AAAAAAAAFBo/aGwGILwuZqM/s1600/collocation_forks.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fJkVhoKcNEA/VFPYueZSf_I/AAAAAAAAFBo/aGwGILwuZqM/s1600/collocation_forks.png" height="197" width="400" /></a></div><br />The missing words scattered around the room are:<br /><br /><b><i><span style="color: #444444;">cope with &nbsp; &nbsp; pursue &nbsp; &nbsp;look up &nbsp; &nbsp; skip &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;ruthless &nbsp; &nbsp; subtle </span></i></b><br /><br />To make it more challenging provide more key words than the forks. In other words, add some "distracters”, for instance:<br /><br /><span style="color: #444444;"><b><i>put forward &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</i></b><i><b>conscious</b></i></span><br /><br />For example, I put the adjectives on the walls in Activity C in <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2014/01/news-quiz-2013-vocabulary.html" target="_blank">this series of vocabulary review activities</a> accompanying my annual News Quiz. The distracters added were <i>severe</i> and <i>human.</i><br /><br />Besides collocation forks, gap-fill exercises can be done with a word bank scattered around the classroom, like in the activity below:<br /><br /><div nbsp="" style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto;">&nbsp; <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/87912245/Down-and-Out-Gapped-texts-for-Round-the-Room-cloze" nbsp="" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View Down and Out (Gapped texts for Round the Room cloze) on Scribd">Down and Out (Gapped texts for Round the Room cloze)</a></div><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="0.75" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_37918" scrolling="no" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/87912245/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;access_key=key-svi3fa2o1mon2seusve&amp;show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">See description of the whole activity with an online game preceding it&nbsp;<a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2012/01/play-spent.html" target="_blank">HERE</a></div><br /><br /><h3><span style="color: #783f04;">Writing on the walls</span></h3>In the previous activities students had to look at the bits of paper on the walls or take them off the walls, but you can also get students to write things. The following activity is adapted from Ken Lackman's activity which he demonstrated at the IATEFL Conference in Harrogate in 2010 and which can be found in his resource book <i><a href="http://www.kenlackman.com/activitybooks2.html" target="_blank">Classroom Games from Corpora</a></i>.<br /><br />Students are given a sheet with concordances for a word (usually a noun) taken from corpus - different groups get different concordances. Students scan through the concordances for collocations of the key word and put them into categories.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XbajsP9POjI/VFPpCT71cBI/AAAAAAAAFB8/_I-kNzZFVJM/s1600/concordances_weather.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XbajsP9POjI/VFPpCT71cBI/AAAAAAAAFB8/_I-kNzZFVJM/s1600/concordances_weather.png" height="207" width="400" /></a></div><br />The categories are decided by the teacher in advance. For example, for the key word WEATHER you can have such categories as:<br /><br />Temperature<br />Sky<br />Precipitation<br />Quality<br />Misc.<br /><br />Write the name of each categories at the top of a large (preferably A3) sheet of paper. Stick the sheets around the room. Each group gets a different coloured marker. They walk around the room and add collocations - adjectives in this case - to appropriate categories:<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9Celin7Tnms/VFPxY-FZviI/AAAAAAAAFCY/Yte3CoLu1iQ/s1600/20120719_133738.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9Celin7Tnms/VFPxY-FZviI/AAAAAAAAFCY/Yte3CoLu1iQ/s1600/20120719_133738.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Playing categories on the walls</td></tr></tbody></table>Temperature (<i>cold, hot, warm </i>etc)<br />Sky (<i>clear, cloudy</i>)<br />Precipitation (<i>rainy, snowy, humid</i>)<br />Quality (<i>good, nasty, rapidly changing</i>)<br />Misc. (<i>weather permitting</i>)<br /><br /><span style="color: #444444;"><b>Two important rules</b></span>: students cannot add two examples in a row (this makes them move all the time from one category to another) and they cannot write an example that has already been written. At the end the team with most examples wins.<br /><br />Note that WEATHER is probably not the best choice of a noun for this kind of activity; it would work better with more abstract nouns, such as&nbsp;<i>job</i>,&nbsp;<i>progress&nbsp;</i>or <i>business. </i>Nevertheless, I've used this as a lead-in into the topic of weather and climate and it has always worked great (most of my students are familiar with corpus and concordances).<br /><br /><h3><span style="color: #783f04;">Reading on the walls</span></h3>Finally, you can use the walls to stick various topics for discussion. Students move around the room in pairs and discuss or debate each statement. I usually give them about a minute for each statement / topic before I shout "Switch".<br /><br />In my teacher training sessions I often post quotes on the walls to stimulate discussion or, simply, for bored audience's glazed eyes to gaze at :) I suppose it's very suggestopedic. Here are some quotes I use in my lexical workshops:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>"A lexical mistake often causes misunderstanding, while a grammar mistake rarely does."&nbsp;</i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;John Sinclair&nbsp;</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span> <br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>“When students travel, they don’t carry grammar books, but dictionaries.” &nbsp;</i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Stephen Krashen&nbsp;</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span> <br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>“Over-concentration on learning single words may hinder the development of the L2 phrasal lexicon.”&nbsp;</i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;Michael McCarthy </span></blockquote><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uZsgJB49kbQ/VFPu8i_AE3I/AAAAAAAAFCM/Nt4fiAJOWJw/s1600/quotes%2Bon%2Bthe%2Bwalls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uZsgJB49kbQ/VFPu8i_AE3I/AAAAAAAAFCM/Nt4fiAJOWJw/s1600/quotes%2Bon%2Bthe%2Bwalls.jpg" height="272" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Ambient" quotes around the room at my <a href="http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2012/sessions/2012-03-22/revising-and-recycling-lexis" target="_blank">IATEFL 2012 workshop</a><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/sandymillin/status/182797673785593856/photo/1" target="_blank">Photo by Sandy Millin</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Of course, walls are also great for exhibiting students work. For example, you want the whole class to look at what each pair/group has produced – a piece of writing, a letter or a mindmap – you can stick these on the walls and get students to move around and read or look at their classmates’ work. Background music normally helps.<br /><br />Have you ever done similar activities? Do you use the walls in your classroom? What do you do? I would like to hear your ideas in the comments below.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Thank you to Amanda Caplan for giving me the idea for this post</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-73280434278718462672014-10-05T18:11:00.003+01:002014-12-07T19:03:02.262+00:00Not a word was spoken (but many were learned)Video is often used in the EFL classroom for listening comprehension activities, facilitating discussions and, of course, language work. But how can you exploit silent films without any language in them? Since developing learners' linguistic resources should be our primary goal (well, at least the blogger behind the blog thinks so), here are four suggestions on how language (grammar and vocabulary) can be generated from silent clips.<br /><a name='more'></a><br /><h3><span style="color: #666666;">Split-viewing </span></h3><div>Split-viewing is an information gap activity where the class is split into groups with one group facing the screen and the other with their back to the screen. The ones facing the screen than report on what they have seen - this can be done WHILE as well as AFTER they watch. Alternatively, students who are not watching (the ones sitting with their backs to the screen) can be send out of the classroom and come up with a list of the questions to ask the 'watching group'. This works particularly well with action or crime scenes with the watching group acting as witnesses and the other group as investigators or reporters. However, in the activity below you can stick to the usual scenario with both groups present in class.<br /><br /><i>See&nbsp;<a href="http://differentefl.blogspot.gr/2014/06/informationgap-activities-what-does-it.html" target="_blank">Dimitris Primalis</a>'s post about split-viewing and other information gap activities on&nbsp;<a href="https://vickyloras.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Vicky Loras</a>'s blog. Click&nbsp;<a href="https://vickyloras.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/guest-post-by-dimitris-primalis-dprimalis-information-gap-tasks-with-the-aid-of-technology/" target="_blank">HERE</a></i><br /><br /></div><div><iframe allowfullscreen="" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/4949853" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe></div><div><span style="color: #783f04;"><br /></span><br /><h4><span style="color: #783f04;">Procedure</span></h4>Show the movie till 2:46 (till the end of the dream sequence). Ask the watching group to describe what they see as they watch. Then the groups switch, i.e. literally switch places. The new watching group now watches and describes what they see from 2.47 until 5.54 (until the protagonist closes the door). At this point, you can ask how they expect the story to end before showing the rest of it, OR you can show the movie from the beginning to the whole class first and work on the language.<br /><br /><h4><span style="color: #783f04;">Language</span></h4>Walk around the room and monitor noting down any problems with language - these don't have to be grammatical errors, very often students will not have the right words to express what they see. Despite the bizarre premise, there is a lot of useful, everyday language that students may not know. Some chunks that you can point out include, but are not limited to:<br /><br /><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 6.24pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="direction: ltr; language: en-US; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 6.24pt; mso-line-break-override: none; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-align: left; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">ask for some sugar</span></span></blockquote><span style="font-style: italic; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">strange noise coming from…</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">trying get out of the room</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">a pack of sugar</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">a bunch of carrots</span></span><br /><span style="color: black; font-style: italic; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">refuses her help</span></span><br /><br /><br />Note that I don't pre-teach language. I just let students get on with the activity and work on the language afterwards. Of course, if you feel that students' own linguistic resources are not sufficient to cope with the activity, you can pre-teach some items before watching, or better yet, use a different, shorter clip.<br /><br /><h3><span style="color: #666666;">Really split viewing</span></h3></div><div>If in the previous activity you split the class into two, here you also split the screen into two. The film you are about to watch utilises a split screen to show two parallel realities. To "split" the screen I drag a blank Word document over part of the screen - the half I don't want students to see.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #783f04;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="375" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/uR_PzFZgsHU?rel=0" width="500"></iframe></span></div><h4><span style="color: #783f04;"><br /></span></h4><h4><span style="color: #783f04;">Preparation</span></h4>Open a blank Word document and resize it to about half-the screen size. Open the Youtube video in your browser and go into full screen mode. Using Alt+Tab, bring up the Word doc to the foreground. <br /><h3><div style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-awvQPyNLgR8/VDFo3cYRhPI/AAAAAAAAEgg/hYAD9W-TzK8/s1600/Really_split_screen.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-awvQPyNLgR8/VDFo3cYRhPI/AAAAAAAAEgg/hYAD9W-TzK8/s1600/Really_split_screen.png" height="215" width="400" /></a></div><br /> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">If you are using an Interactive WhiteBoard (IWB), you can achieve the same effect by using the IWB software.</span></i></span></h3><h4><span style="color: #783f04;"><br /></span></h4><h4><span style="color: #783f04;">Procedure</span></h4>Follow the same procedure as in the activity above, with two alternating groups watching one (left or right) half of the screen. I play the clip until about 1:02 at which point parallel realities converge and the whole things becomes to confusing to follow if you are watching just one half. The whole class then watches the ending together.<br /><br /><h4><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Language</span></b></h4>Once again, a lot of everyday language can be generated from the clip so even elementary level students should be able to cope.<br /><br />Note that the reality on the right side of the screen (where the main character gets out on the wrong side of the bed) might be a bit more challenging to describe so assign it to stronger students. Some "difficult" chunks may include "water splashes all over him", "scarf gets trapped/stucked in the door","gets pickpocketed / gets his wallet stolen". Otherwise, language students will need is fairly easy and is usually covered in class as part of lessons on daily routines. <br /><div style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>wake up&nbsp;</i><br /><i>get up</i><br /><i>get dressed</i><br /><i>put on his trousers/glasses</i><br /><i>open the curtains</i><br /><i>wash his face</i><br /><i>turn on the tap</i></blockquote></blockquote><br /><h3><span style="color: #666666;">Video-dictation</span></h3><div>If the previous two techniques built on the language your students produced - or rather had difficulty producing - in this one input comes from the teacher.<br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/15759511?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0&amp;color=d1d1d1" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe> <br /><h4><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Procedure</span></b></h4>Before you watch the clip, dictate the script making some factual errors. Students write down the script in full, then watch the clip and correct the mistakes.<br /><br /><h4><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Language</span></b></h4>This is the text I used but feel free to adapt it to suit your students' level.<br />The factual errors are <u><b>highlighted</b></u><br /><br /><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">It’s late at night in the office. A tired office worker is at a photocopier making copies. He is wearing a </span><b style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><u>blue</u></b><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">shirt and a </span><b style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><u>red</u></b><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> tie. He angrily presses the start button and </span><b style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><u>hits the copier with his fist</u></b><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">. The machine spits out a sheet of paper with a large black spot on it. The man picks up the sheet and looks at it with a </span><b style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><u>smile on his face</u></b><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">. He finishes his coffee and puts the empty </span><b style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><u>mug</u></b><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">on the black spot. It disappears into this black hole. He sticks his hand inside the black hole and fishes out </span><b style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><u>a pen</u></b></i><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">He walks over to a vending machine and uses the black hole to get </span><b style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><u>a can of coke</u></b><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> from it. Then the greed gets the better of him (=can’t control his greed) and he uses the black hole to open the door to a room with a safe. And then uses the black hole to steal the money from inside.</span></i><br /><br /><br /><h3><span style="color: #666666;">Vision Off</span></h3>This is not my idea. It's taken from Steve Muir's <a href="http://allatc.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">allatc</a> blog. The video is not completely silent - while there is (almost) no dialogue in it, there are a lot of background noises so the idea is to listen and try to guess what the main character is doing at each point.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/OINa46HeWg8?rel=0" width="560"></iframe> <br /><h4><b><span style="color: #783f04;"><br /></span></b></h4><h4><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Procedure</span></b></h4>See Steve's detailed lesson plan <a href="http://allatc.wordpress.com/2014/05/19/i-forgot-my-phone/" target="_blank">HERE</a>. I felt that the idea with groups A and B didn't really work for me so instead I show a list of activities (on the board/screen/handout) in the wrong/jumbled order and get students to work in groups to put them in the right order. <br /><h4><b><span style="color: #783f04;"><br /></span></b></h4><h4><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Language</span></b></h4>While Steve suggests focusing on word formation with this video, I found there were too many instances of the preposition AT for me to resist. AT can be notoriously difficult for students. Using Steve's suggestions (lots of chunks there), I focused on how we use AT with events.: <br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="direction: ltr; language: en-US; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 6.24pt; mso-line-break-override: none; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-align: center; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; text-indent: 0in;">AT <span style="font-weight: normal;">+ events</span></span></div></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: italic; text-indent: 0in;">a</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: italic; text-indent: 0in;">t</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-indent: 0in;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-indent: 0in;">a birthday party</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: italic; text-indent: 0in;">a</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: italic; text-indent: 0in;">t </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-indent: 0in;">a stand-up comedy show</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: italic; text-indent: 0in;">at</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-indent: 0in;"> a gig</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">As a follow up, you can ask students to tell you if people using mobile phones have ever annoyed them and where: </span><i>at<span style="font-weight: normal;"> a wedding, </span>at <span style="font-weight: normal;">a concert</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> etc.</span></span><br /><br /><br /><h3><span style="color: #666666;">Sources of silent clips</span></h3><h4 style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 6.24pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: inherit;">Websites</span></span></h4><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 5.76pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 5.76pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><u><a href="http://www.vimeo.com/">www.vimeo.com</a></u><u> </u></span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 5.76pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 5.76pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><u><a href="http://www.shortoftheweek.com/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">www.shortoftheweek.com</span></a></u></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 5.76pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://shortsbay.com/"></a></span></u></div><u style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://shortsbay.com/">http</a></span></u><u style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://shortsbay.com/">://shortsbay.com</a></span></u><br /><br /><br /><h4 style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 6.24pt; text-align: left; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: inherit;">Blogs</span></span></h4><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 5.76pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 5.76pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These great blogs, some of them already mentioned above, were a great inspiration when writing this post.</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 5.76pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><u><a href="http://www.film-english.com/">www.film-english.com</a></u>&nbsp;- </b></span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: 0in;">Kieran Donaghy’s award winning website has a <a href="http://film-english.com/2011/06/03/lesson-plan-on-money-and-greed/" target="_blank">different teaching suggestion for <i>The Black Hole</i></a>. And while I was working on this post, I also came across his <a href="http://film-english.com/2011/07/22/wrong-side-of-the-bed-2/" target="_blank">lesson plan for <i>The Wrong Side of the Bed</i></a>. &nbsp;</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 5.76pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See also how I extended Kieran's video lesson <i>Symmetry</i> into an activity of my own - click <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2013/03/binomials.html" target="_blank">HERE</a></span><br /><br /></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 5.76pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 5.76pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><u><a href="http://allatc.wordpress.com/">http://allatc.wordpress.com</a></u>&nbsp; -&nbsp;</b></span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: 0in;">On his blog, Steve Muir has activities for using video (not only silent clips) for higher levels - C1/2, hence the name of the blog.</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 5.76pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 5.76pt; text-indent: 0in; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><u><a href="http://theteacherjames.com/">http</a></u><u><a href="http://theteacherjames.com/">://</a></u><u><a href="http://theteacherjames.com/">theteacherjames.com</a></u></b></span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: 0in;">&nbsp;- James Taylor has three posts on his blog with lots of silent movies and ideas on how to use them. Follow <a href="http://theteacherjames.com/category/silentmovies/" target="_blank">THIS LINK</a></span></div><br /><br />Even more great ideas for using silent clips in the EFL classroom can be found on <a href="http://ddeubel.edublogs.org/2011/03/23/using-silent-video-in-the-efl-classroom/" target="_blank">David Deubelbeiss's EFL 2.0 Teacher Talk blog</a>&nbsp;and <a href="http://visualisingideas.edublogs.org/category/video-lessons/" target="_blank">Naomi Epstein's Visualising Ideas blog</a><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>Download my workshop handout with all the links - click <a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35483975/blog/Silent%20clips%20PCE%20ETAI%202014.pdf" target="_blank">HERE</a></i></b></div><br /><br /></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-16211298427465067722014-08-19T05:44:00.002+01:002015-05-26T20:07:34.545+01:00Lexical Approach: a definitive reference listNot a proper blog post this time but just a list of references and useful links I have compiled for a series of workshops I have been giving this summer. Ninety minutes is not enough for even <i>an Introduction to...</i> kind of workshop so I thought I'd put together a list for the participants to continue exploring the Lexical approach on their own. The workshops were commissioned by the British Council, hence a slight slant towards the British Council - BBC <a href="http://teachingenglish.org.uk/" target="_blank">Teaching English</a> website.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br />The list has already come in handy for someone doing Lexis as a topic in one of her LSAs of module 2 of DELTA so I am sure it can be useful for many others too.<br /><br />Did I leave anything important out? Should anything else be included? Do let me know in the comments below.<br /><br /><b>The list can also be accessed via this short link:</b><br /><b><a href="http://bit.ly/LAref" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/LAref</a></b><br /><br /><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="undefined" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_35998" scrolling="no" src="//www.scribd.com/embeds/237179428/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe><br /><br /><br /><div nbsp="" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: block; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"></div><br /><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b>The presentation used to accompany the workshop can be found&nbsp;<a href="http://prezi.com/p03jwaddlrit/la-introduction/" target="_blank">HERE</a></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /><br />Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-73630602545858392952014-05-31T15:33:00.001+01:002014-11-29T23:12:02.586+00:00Experimental vocabulary practice<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x3XJ13VPxNg/U4nnEml-BBI/AAAAAAAAB6w/RJnk7Llb5Ug/s1600/3546334679_abb69fc9ff_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x3XJ13VPxNg/U4nnEml-BBI/AAAAAAAAB6w/RJnk7Llb5Ug/s1600/3546334679_abb69fc9ff_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mpeterke/" target="_blank">Peter Megyeri</a><br />on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">My interest in experimental practice was piqued at the TESOL France’s last annual colloquium where I attended interesting sessions on the topic by Mike Harrison, and Christina Rebuffet-Broadus and Jennie Wright (see my conference report&nbsp;<a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2013/12/going-experimental-at-tesol-france.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">For those who have done the DELTA, experimental practice may be associated with trying out different, non-mainstream teaching methods or approaches, such as TPR or the Silent Way.&nbsp;But, as Christina Rebuffet-Broadus, co-author of <a href="http://the-round.com/resource/experimental-practice-in-elt/" target="_blank">Experimental Practice in ELT: Walk on the Wild Side</a>which recently came out on the Round, assured me during a brief chat we had after her workshop at TESOL France, experimental practice can also be conducted on a micro-level. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><a name='more'></a>And this is what I have encouraged teachers to do on the in-service teacher training courses in vocabulary teaching I have been giving this year. As part of these INSETs teachers are usually required to submit a final paper showing evidence of application of course content. The final paper usually consists of a lesson plan and reflection. Instead, on my INSET courses teachers were asked to experiment with&nbsp;a different&nbsp;technique for presenting, teaching and practicing new vocabulary.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Here's just a handful of ideas to get you started:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><h3><b><span style="color: #783f04;">With or without L1</span></b></h3><div class="MsoNormal">Some still labour under the assumption that L1 should be banned from the classroom. When clarifying the meaning of a new word, it's often easier to supply L1 translation (if there is a more or less direct equivalent in L1) instead of launching into a lengthy explanation in English while students are mentally searching for an L1 equivalent. How about using L1 to clarify the meaning of new items (words, collocations, chunks)? And, conversely, if you always use L1 translation to clarify meaning, how about changing tack and defining new items strictly in English?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><h3><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Start with L1</span></b></h3><div class="MsoNormal">Say you use L1 to clarify the meaning of new items and have no qualms about. How do you go about? You probably write the new items on the board in English and then clarify / translate. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Why not write the items you want your students to learn in L1 first and then provide English translations? This might actually be more effective because it will arouse learners’ curiosity and create a “mental need” for the word or phrase in English. And then the learner might be more receptive when you supply it.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><h3><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Ways of clarifying new meaning</span></b></h3><div class="MsoNormal">There are many other ways of clarifying meaning of new items. Why always use definitions and L1 translations? You can use images pictures, realia, mime. See this <a href="http://chiasuanchong.com/2012/08/04/the-celta-trainers-diary-part-4-emergent-teaching-clarifying-meaning/" target="_blank">Chia Suan Chong’s post</a> where she lists different ways of clarifying new lexis. Have you tried all of these?<o:p></o:p></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><h3><b><span style="color: #783f04;">From vertical to horizontal</span></b></h3><div class="MsoNormal">Many textbooks organise vocabulary in semantic sets, for example COLOURS: red, blue, white, etc. &nbsp;In an earlier post I discussed the pitfalls of this method. Why not convert vertical sets into horizontal? Instead of teaching <i>blue</i> with <i>red </i>teach&nbsp;<i>blue + sky.</i>&nbsp;See more details on how you can do this <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2014/03/horizontal-alternatives-to-vertical.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><h3><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Pre-teaching or post-teaching</span></b></h3><div class="MsoNormal">Reading texts in coursebooks are always preceded by pre-teaching vocabulary. As Carol Read recently noted in a Facebook discussion: why pre-teach vocabulary before reading if it is about to come up in a perfectly contextualized sentence?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The same is true with listening texts. And the reasons for pre-teaching here are even more obscure. <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2012/03/listening-template.html" target="_blank">Research suggests</a> that providing background information about the topic and repeat listening are more effective than pre-teaching a few odd supposedly difficult words before listening. Anyway your learners probably won't process the recently taught words and catch them in a stream of speech. I have witnessed it many times – especially with IELTS students.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">How about skipping the pre-teaching activity and going straight into reading or listening? New or half-known items can be dealt with after the activity.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Hugh Dellar has also spoken against pre-teaching vocabulary before vocabulary exercises (see his video-presentation <a href="http://hughdellar.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/working-exercises-hard/" target="_blank">HERE</a>). In his view, it defeats the purpose of a vocabulary exercise which should serve as an indication to the teacher of what students already know. It’s better to let students get on with the exercise and spend time post-teaching any items that pose difficulty.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><h3><b><span style="color: #783f04;">From word to chunks</span></b></h3></div><div class="MsoNormal">If you usually write single words on the board, how about presenting new vocabulary in chunks and encouraging your students to do the same in their notebooks? When teaching different jobs (doctor, accountant, lawyer) teach them together with the grammartical pattern they are likely to occur with:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>He/She works as ... (doctor, lawyer)</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br /></i></div><div class="MsoNormal">Even personality adjectives can be taught as part of lexico-grammatical frames:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>He/She is very <b>sociable / intelligent</b></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>He/She can be a bit <b>annoying / nosy</b> sometimes</i><br /><i><br /></i>For more ideas on how to move from single words to chunks in teaching, read&nbsp;<a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2013/01/start-teaching-lexically.html" target="_blank">this post</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-28CnzH540c0/U4nngxJUoBI/AAAAAAAAB64/hRZ66H2g-TY/s1600/6286292296_02ef049c82_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-28CnzH540c0/U4nngxJUoBI/AAAAAAAAB64/hRZ66H2g-TY/s1600/6286292296_02ef049c82_z.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/6286292296/" target="_blank">Human vocabulary experiment</a> by @chucksansy and his class<br />via <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/6286292296/" target="_blank">eltpics</a> on Flickr</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I am not saying that the ideas presented here are necessarily better and will work with all students but if you never try them you’ll never know will you? And this is what experimental practice – or at least the way I see it - is all about: going out of the comfort zone and questioning our practices.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Have you ever experimented with any of these "techniques"? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments below. <o:p></o:p></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-81516764182489429642014-04-13T11:14:00.001+01:002014-04-13T14:24:59.743+01:00To confer or to concur?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Zk0AG4PNiH0/U0pjdg5H2RI/AAAAAAAABWc/6fQmFHQXFnA/s1600/8650198280_f06906bc5f_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Zk0AG4PNiH0/U0pjdg5H2RI/AAAAAAAABWc/6fQmFHQXFnA/s1600/8650198280_f06906bc5f_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image by @sandymillin<br />via <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/sets" target="_blank">eltpics</a> on Flickr</td></tr></tbody></table>For the first time since it was last held in Harrogate (2010), I didn’t go to the annual IATEFL conference this year and - like thousands of other English teachers who couldn’t afford to go to the largest EFL conference in the world - settled in comfortably in front of my computer to watch it online. All plenary talks and selected presentations are streamed live on the <a href="http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/" target="_blank">IATEFL online website</a> thanks to the partnership between IATEFL and the British Council. I was particularly looking forward to the talks by Prof Michael Hoey on 4 April (<i>"Old approaches, new perspectives" - </i>click <a href="http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2014/sessions/2014-04-04/plenary-session-michael-hoey" target="_blank">HERE</a> to watch the recording) and Prof Sugata Mitra on 5 April (<i>"The future of learning"- </i>click <a href="http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2014/sessions/2014-04-05/plenary-sugata-mitra" target="_blank">HERE</a> for the recording) and highly recommended them to all my students (teacher candidates).<o:p></o:p><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /><a name='more'></a><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--2Dudic9DGs/U0o48367CNI/AAAAAAAABV8/eIdaeJd6i40/s1600/with+M+Hoey+at+lex+conf+2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--2Dudic9DGs/U0o48367CNI/AAAAAAAABV8/eIdaeJd6i40/s1600/with+M+Hoey+at+lex+conf+2013.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With Prof M. Hoey at the Lexical Conference<br />in London, May 2013 (Photo by Ela Wassel)</td></tr></tbody></table>Michael Hoey's theory of lexical priming, which grew out of his work with the renowned linguist John Sinclair, offers a compelling view of how language works, a view which stands in direct opposition to that of Chomsky but which, unlike that of Chomsky, never gained wide currency in ELT circles. Besides being a distinguished scholar, Hoey is also a brilliant speaker who delivered the plenary with his characteristic wit. According to posts on Twitter from those in the audience (my live feed cut out at that moment) he even mentioned <a href="http://hltmag.co.uk/dec13/index.htm" target="_blank">the special edition of HLT</a> Hania Kryszewska and I put out last year as one of the key works in the history of the Lexical Approach which made me very happy and proud. In his talk, Hoey used evidence from corpus linguistics to provide support for the claims made by Stephen Krashen and Michael Lewis whose Monitor Model and Lexical Approach respectively have attracted a number of adherents as well as a number of detractors. In other words, very controversial figures.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">However, the real controversy was saved till the last day of the conference when Sugata Mitra took to the stage. Famous for his ‘hole-in-the-wall’ project (where children in an Indian slum were given access to a computer built into - literally – a hole in the wall and taught themselves how to use it and picked up English along the way), Sugata Mitra presented his vision of future learning known as <i>minimally invasive education</i> where children can learn without professional support or supervision. While reactions from those – like me - watching the plenary online were, in the main, positive, Twitter was awash with criticism and even fury. Here are some comments posted on Twitter by those in the audience:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /><o:p></o:p> <br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">I was shocked by the standing ovation for Mitra at the end of <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23IATEFL&amp;src=hash">#IATEFL</a> speech most people didn't see as controversial. I wonder WHY NOT?<br />— Jim Scrivener (@jimscriv) <a href="https://twitter.com/jimscriv/statuses/452372202059755520">April 5, 2014</a></blockquote><br /><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">I honestly don't think I've ever felt angrier about a talk I've seen at <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23iatefl&amp;src=hash">#iatefl</a> than I am now.<br />— hugh dellar (@hughdellar) <a href="https://twitter.com/hughdellar/statuses/452373457402347520">April 5, 2014</a></blockquote><br /><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/vale360">@vale360</a> it's a vision that takes teachers out of society and schools out of the fabric of the built environment, his talk was a disgrace<br />— Luke Meddings (@LukeMeddings) <a href="https://twitter.com/LukeMeddings/statuses/452372748275548160">April 5, 2014</a></blockquote><br /><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">After the plenary the debate spilled over onto Facebook where it is still raging to this day. Sugata Mitra has been called "<a href="http://eflnotes.wordpress.com/2014/04/06/iatefl-harrogate-2014-mitra-having-a-jelly-good-time/#comment-1437" target="_blank">a&nbsp;manipulative money grabber</a>",&nbsp; "<a href="http://www.eltjam.com/why-we-should-be-afraid-of-the-big-bad-wolf-sugata-mitra-and-the-neoliberal-takeover-in-sheeps-clothing/" target="_blank">snake-oil salesman</a>", "a madman with a microphone and money" and his rhetoric described as <a href="http://jeremyharmer.wordpress.com/2014/04/07/angel-or-devil-the-strange-case-of-sugata-mitra/" target="_blank">over-ideaistic</a>, <a href="http://www.eltjam.com/why-we-should-be-afraid-of-the-big-bad-wolf-sugata-mitra-and-the-neoliberal-takeover-in-sheeps-clothing/" target="_blank">neo-liberal</a> and&nbsp;<a href="http://hancockmcdonald.com/blog/sugata-mitra-ed-tech-evangelist" target="_blank">dangerous</a>. (Clicking on these links will take you to various blog posts and comments written in response to Mitra's talk).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qo1P9iOINog/U0pb4rpt-lI/AAAAAAAABWM/1yrzp824Mes/s1600/Mitra_at_IATEFL2014.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qo1P9iOINog/U0pb4rpt-lI/AAAAAAAABWM/1yrzp824Mes/s1600/Mitra_at_IATEFL2014.png" height="175" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Should teachers be taken out of the equation?<br />Prof Sugata Mitra at the 48th IATEFL conference in Harrogate</td></tr></tbody></table>Interestingly, these reactions come mainly from ELT methodologists, coursebook writers and well-known bloggers (or, in Paul Read’s terms “<a href="http://paulread.net/letters-celta-graduate-1-mythology-gods-tefl/" target="_blank">gods and demi-gods of TEFL</a>”) rather than from the general public who gave Mitra a standing ovation. In fact, some have called into question the IATEFL’s decision to invite such a provocative speaker to the conference, seeing it as an affront to teachers, most of whom fund their own way to travel from four corners of the world to the most prestigious ELT event of the year.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p><br />A number of blog posts written in the past week in response to Mitra’s plenary, as one witty TEFL-er mentioned on Facebook, has probably exceeded the body of Mitra’s own academic work. And this brings me to the main point of this post (I wasn’t going to summarise the talks here - IATEFL's registered bloggers have already done it for me). Is it all worth the ink, as it were? The outrage in the blogosphere about Mitra's plenary surprises me.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p><br />Do we go to conferences to hear things that we like to hear? Or do we want speakers like Sugata Mitra (and Michael Hoey) to help us take stock of our teaching, re-evaluate what we do in the classroom and, generally, shake us up a little? After all, the word “conference” comes from the verb “confer” suggesting discussion and an exchange of opinions. Shouldn't, then, the annual IATEFL conference be a forum for exchanging and sharing ideas and opinions where speakers provoke thought and push the audience's buttons?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">By this standard, Michael Hoey’s talk should have also provoked a backlash from coursebook writers and publishers. As a matter of fact, he shouldn’t have been invited at all to a conference which relies heavily on sponsorship from the publishers because the “holistic” view of language he advocates goes against the conventional (and outdated) grammar/vocabulary dichotomy enshrined in most textbooks published today.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br />Not less surprising is the conspicuous absence of blog posts about Michael Hoey’s talk. I couldn’t even find any summary reports from the official IATEFL bloggers. The only reaction – critical, by the way – was written by Geoff Jordan in his <a href="http://canlloparot.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/newsflash-hoey-well-monitor-theory-and-lexical-approach-still-dead/" target="_blank">blog</a>. <o:p></o:p></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Perhaps it’s because Michael Hoey’s session was not about technology, learning styles or critical thinking but merely about… language. Yes, that's what the second letter in ELT or the fourth in TEFL stands for, that trivial thing that seems to have ceased to interest language teachers today.<br /><o:p></o:p><br /><br /><br /><i>Click <a href="about:invalid#zClosurez" target="_blank">HERE</a>&nbsp;for Graham Stanley's balanced summary of Sugata Mitra's talk and a long list of other blog posts written in response to it in the Further Reading section at the bottom</i></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-59435843881424402782014-03-01T13:00:00.002+00:002015-02-17T21:38:17.336+00:00Horizontal alternatives to vertical lists<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vvZp7w-iTXI/UxHWfeJGOuI/AAAAAAAAAw8/iC6qRQOhnuI/s1600/colours+in+Berlin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vvZp7w-iTXI/UxHWfeJGOuI/AAAAAAAAAw8/iC6qRQOhnuI/s1600/colours+in+Berlin.jpg" height="143" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Tzvi Meller</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit;">As much as it seems counter-intuitive, teaching new vocabulary in semantic sets (e.g. jobs: <i>doctor, teacher, lawyer </i>etc. or colours: <i>red, blue, yellow&nbsp;</i>etc.) does not facilitate learning. As far back as in the 1990s, research showed that teaching semantically related items is counter-productive</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">. Have these findings been taken on board? Of course not! New vocabulary in elementary level coursebooks is routinely presented in lists of semantically related items.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><h3 style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: inherit;"><a name='more'></a>Semantic sets and interference</span></o:p></h3><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 1993, Thomas Tinkham investigated the effect of learning new words under two conditions. One group received a list of words belonging to the same semantic set while the other was given random, semantically unrelated words. Tinkham revealed that list-learning of unrelated words yielded better results as the second group performed significantly better when they were asked to recalled the target words. A few years later, Rob Waring (1997) replicated the experiment with two groups of Japanese learners of English and confirmed the results. More recently, Erten and Tekin (2008) in their study of 60 Turkish 4th graders, found the same negative effect on recall and learning when new words were grouped according to semantic categories.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The results of these studies are usually interpreted in the light of <i>Interference theory </i>which states that similarity between the items learned at the same time hinders learning and retention. In vocabulary teaching it means that when words learned at the same time are closely related or share common characteristics they will interfere with each other. You have probably observed the phenomenon of learners remembering the words they have learned (or, rather, their forms: how a word is spelled or pronounced) and the meanings but confusing which word goes with each meaning. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, there are other reasons why learning lists of semantically related words is counter-productive. Presenting words in such lists, related by virtue of their belonging to the same superordinate category (shirt, skirt, trousers - CLOTHES), doesn’t give the learner much information about how the words in a list should be used. The same is true of other paradigmatic (vertical) relationships, such as synonyms and antonyms. (<i>See my post on paradigmatic and syntagmatic relationships <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.co.il/2012/06/syntagmatic-vx-paradigmatic.html" target="_blank">HERE</a></i>).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #783f04;">Semantic sets in coursebooks</span></h3><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Despite the above arguments, coursebooks – especially at elementary levels – still organize new vocabulary in semantic lists. What can teachers do to counter-balance the negative effect of semantic clustering? This is the question we tried to answer with two groups of Primary school teachers I’ve been working with this year on an INSET course in vocabulary teaching.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">We started by brainstorming kinds of vocabulary items that are commonly presented in coursebooks in lists and came up with the following categories:</span></div><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-insideh: none; mso-border-insidev: none; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;"> <tbody><tr style="height: 95.85pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;"> <td style="height: 95.85pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 159.6pt;" valign="top" width="213"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #783f04;"><b>Transport</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">bus<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">bike<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">taxi<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">train<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">plane<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">van<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="height: 95.85pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 159.6pt;" valign="top" width="213"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #783f04;"><b>Colours</b></span><br /> red<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">blue<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">yellow<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">green<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">black<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">white<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div></td> </tr><tr style="height: 92.25pt; mso-yfti-irow: 1;"> <td style="height: 92.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 159.6pt;" valign="top" width="213"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Clothes</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">shirt<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">skirt<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">scarf<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">trousers/pants<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">hat</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div></td> <td style="height: 92.25pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 159.6pt;" valign="top" width="213"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Animals</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">cat<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">dog<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">lion<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">bear<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">elephant<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr><tr> <td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 159.6pt;" valign="top" width="213"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: inherit;"><b>Classroom objects<o:p></o:p></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">pen<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">pencil<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">ruler<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">eraser<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div></td> <td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 159.6pt;" valign="top" width="213"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Food</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">pizza<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">pasta<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">hamburger<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">ice-cream<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><h3 style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #783f04;">Developing alternatives</span>&nbsp;</span></o:p></h3><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We then looked at how we can teach new vocabulary <b>horizontally </b>instead of presenting <b>vertical </b>lists, i.e. how to teach new words with the words they are likely to go with (<a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2013/05/context-or-co-text.html" target="_blank">co-text</a>) rather than with other words sharing the same superordinate concept. Colours seemed to be an easy category to start with.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><h4 style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">Colours</span></h4><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Instead of teaching a list of, say, six colours, it would be more effective to focus on just three at a time and present these alongside the nouns they can go with, i.e. adjective + noun collocations.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ej8ieOOka0k/UxHZh_bLaTI/AAAAAAAAAxI/t_BUoUo9kVo/s1600/landscape+with+colours.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ej8ieOOka0k/UxHZh_bLaTI/AAAAAAAAAxI/t_BUoUo9kVo/s1600/landscape+with+colours.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/6222804467/in/set-72157627801907132/" target="_blank">@ij64</a>&nbsp;via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/sets" target="_blank">eltpics</a> on Flickr</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit;">For example,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>blue sky<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>red dress</i>&nbsp;or <i>flower<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>black coffee<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">followed by another three in the following lesson:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>green grass<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>yellow sand<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>white snow<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We felt that <i>white snow</i>&nbsp;perhaps may not have immediate relevance for primary school pupils in a hot Mediterranean country, so <i>white clouds</i> was suggested instead. <i>White clouds</i> can also combine with <i>blue sky</i> (<i>white clouds in the blue sky</i>) providing the learner with immediately useable language for describing, for example, a picture of a landscape. Note also how alliterative patterns in <i><b>r</b>e<b>d dr</b>ess</i> and <i><b>gr</b>een <b>gr</b>ass </i>can serve as mnemonic devices which have been shown to facilitate learning (Boers &amp; Lindstromberg 2005) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /><h4><span style="color: #444444;">Animals</span></h4></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Colours can also combine easily with animals, especially if you use the Brown Bear story.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ek7j3huAApc?rel=0" width="480"></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;</span></o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here, it is advisable not to teach the whole story to children but introduce 3-4 animals (with their colours) at a time.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Brown Bear, Red Bird, Yellow Duck </i>in the first lesson, and then gradually add other colour+animal combinations:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Blue Horse, Green Frog, Purple Cat, White Dog, Black Sheep </i>etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><h4 style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">Clothes</span></h4><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Clothes was not an easy category to convert into “horizontal” teaching. The following pattern came to mind:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br /><table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 7.75pt; margin-left: 6.75pt; margin-right: 6.75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; mso-table-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-table-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-table-bspace: 10.0pt; mso-table-left: left; mso-table-lspace: 9.0pt; mso-table-overlap: never; mso-table-rspace: 9.0pt; mso-table-top: .05pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 252.9pt;" valign="top" width="337"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>STUDENT NAME&nbsp;</i><i>is wearing</i><i>&nbsp;</i><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 58.5pt;" valign="top" width="78"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>a shirt</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>a skirt</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>a hat</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">etc<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-insideh: none; mso-border-insidev: none; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;"><tbody></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is clearly a step in the right direction as here we provide also a useful grammatical structure the new words can be slotted in but a semantic list still remains a long list. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Again, an alternative can be combining words for clothes with colours using the items of clothing your students are wearing and presenting them in the same incremental fashion (three at a time) as colours + animals combinations.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><h4 style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">Classroom objects</span></h4><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ah3X73Z-ZG4/UxHUiL8aafI/AAAAAAAAAww/XJghaIr9LYo/s1600/purple+classroom+objects.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ah3X73Z-ZG4/UxHUiL8aafI/AAAAAAAAAww/XJghaIr9LYo/s1600/purple+classroom+objects.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Photo by aClilToClimb&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/sets" target="_blank">eltpics</a> on Flickr</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit;">Once again, one possibility is dividing a long list into two and combining the items with colours using the real objects (realia) students happen to have with them. Or adding the following grammar to the list:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i></i></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Have you got a(n) …&nbsp; / Do you have a(n) … ?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">or – depending on the level of the learner -<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Can I use your …?<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Can I borrow your …?<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><h4 style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">Transport</span></h4><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There are many ways these can be extended horizontally, for example:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>I always take the bus to school / I go to school by bus</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In this video Herbert Puchta teaches new words and provides collocations for them using Total Physical Response (TPR)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/1Mk6RRf4kKs?rel=0" width="480"></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Similar action stories can be created with:<o:p></o:p></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>get on/off the bus/train/plane</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>drive a car/van</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>ride a bike&nbsp;</i></span></blockquote></blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><h4><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">Food</span></h4></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This group often has cognates (=words that are the same across languages) such as <i>pizza</i> and <i>hamburger</i>. Some patterns that food items can be taught with are the following:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="background: #BFBFBF; border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-background-themecolor: background1; mso-background-themeshade: 191; mso-border-alt: solid #984806 .5pt; mso-border-insideh-themecolor: accent6; mso-border-insideh-themeshade: 128; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid #984806; mso-border-insidev-themecolor: accent6; mso-border-insidev-themeshade: 128; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid #984806; mso-border-themecolor: accent6; mso-border-themeshade: 128; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;"> <tbody><tr style="height: 56.7pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="border: solid #984806 1.0pt; height: 56.7pt; mso-border-alt: solid #984806 .5pt; mso-border-themecolor: accent6; mso-border-themecolor: accent6; mso-border-themeshade: 128; mso-border-themeshade: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 59.4pt;" valign="top" width="79"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: &quot;inherit&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">I eat</span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: &quot;inherit&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">I have</span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: &quot;inherit&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">I like</span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid #984806 1.0pt; height: 56.7pt; mso-border-alt: solid #984806 .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid #984806 .5pt; mso-border-left-themecolor: accent6; mso-border-left-themeshade: 128; mso-border-themecolor: accent6; mso-border-themecolor: accent6; mso-border-themeshade: 128; mso-border-themeshade: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.25in;" valign="top" width="120"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: &quot;inherit&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">eggs</span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: &quot;inherit&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">pasta</span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: &quot;inherit&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">vegetables</span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid #984806 1.0pt; height: 56.7pt; mso-border-alt: solid #984806 .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid #984806 .5pt; mso-border-left-themecolor: accent6; mso-border-left-themeshade: 128; mso-border-themecolor: accent6; mso-border-themecolor: accent6; mso-border-themeshade: 128; mso-border-themeshade: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.25in;" valign="top" width="120"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: &quot;inherit&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: &quot;inherit&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">for</span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid #984806 1.0pt; height: 56.7pt; mso-border-alt: solid #984806 .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid #984806 .5pt; mso-border-left-themecolor: accent6; mso-border-left-themeshade: 128; mso-border-themecolor: accent6; mso-border-themecolor: accent6; mso-border-themeshade: 128; mso-border-themeshade: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 76.5pt;" valign="top" width="102"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: &quot;inherit&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">breakfast</span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: &quot;inherit&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">lunch</span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: &quot;inherit&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">dinner</span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: &quot;inherit&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">supper</span></i><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These patterns also helps relate names of different foods to meals they are likely to be eaten for, thus creating mental associations between words. For example, <i>eggs for breakfast</i>, <i>pasta for supper</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hania Kryzsewska in her article <a href="http://www.hltmag.co.uk/mar03/less.htm" target="_blank">Chunking for Beginners</a>suggests teaching different food names with countries they come from. By the way, countries are another category which tends to be presented in lists. Hania’s horizontal alternatives would look something like this:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Tea from China<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Pizza from Italy<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Wine from France<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Football from Brazil<o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Cars from Germany<o:p></o:p></i></span><br /><i>Kangaroos from Australia</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Note that the list contains not only names of food but other <b>unrelated </b>items.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I hope the above suggestions help you add a “horizontal” aspect to your vocabulary teaching. I would like to thank my course participants for their contributions and ideas, and generally being lovely groups to work with. I hope you learned from the course as much as I learned from you!<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For more suggestions on alternatives to vertical lists, see Andrew Walkley’s posts <a href="http://blog.westminster.ac.uk/celt/2012/10/11/the-problem-of-lexical-sets-and-some-alternative-approaches/" target="_blank">The problems of lexical sets and some alternative approaches</a> and <a href="http://blog.westminster.ac.uk/celt/2012/10/15/developing-lexical-sets/" target="_blank">Developing Lexical Sets</a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><h3 style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: inherit;">References</span></o:p></h3><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Boers, F., &amp; Lindstromberg, S. (2005). Finding ways to make phrase-learning feasible: The mnemonic effect of alliteration. <i>System, 33</i>(2), 225–238<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Erten, İ. H., &amp; Tekin, M. (2008). Effects on vocabulary acquisition of presenting new words in semantic sets versus semantically unrelated sets. <i>System, 36</i>(3), 407–422<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tinkham, T. (1993). The effect of semantic clustering on the learning of second language vocabulary. <i>System, 21</i>(3), 371–380</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Waring, R. (1997). The negative effects of learning words in semantic sets: A replication. <i>System, 25</i>(2), 261–274</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-1410629157156188502014-01-05T17:47:00.000+00:002014-12-27T22:40:32.797+00:00News Quiz 2013 - Vocabulary<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fRDOld_0D1Q/Usmh61y28CI/AAAAAAAAAlk/7ucbR0M8qXg/s1600/Year+in+Review+2013+Collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fRDOld_0D1Q/Usmh61y28CI/AAAAAAAAAlk/7ucbR0M8qXg/s200/Year+in+Review+2013+Collage.jpg" height="141" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Images by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/23165290@N00/">Tim Evanson</a>, &nbsp;<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/raver_mikey/">Gene&nbsp;</a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/raver_mikey/">Hunt</a><br />&amp;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexeya/">Alex Alishevskikh</a>&nbsp;via Flickr</div></td></tr></tbody></table>As usual, as a follow up to the traditional end-of-year news quiz, here are language-focused activities aimed at reviewing and consolidating lexis from quiz. If you haven't seen the news quiz 2013, click <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2013/12/end-of-year-news-quiz-2013.html" target="_blank">HERE</a><br /><br />This is how I usually use the quiz with my students.<br /><i><br /></i><i>Please note the quiz and the activities below come in two levels.</i><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Lesson 1</span></b>: (first lesson of a new year) Students answer the questions the quiz. Optionally, I may give out the correct answers. We highlight interesting chunks of language (see the teachers' notes that accompany the quiz)<br /><br /><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Lesson 2</span></b>: Students' mini-presentations on the news stories they chose in Lesson 1 OR the ones they didn't know the answers to. Vocabulary review and practice 1. (available in two levels)<br /><br /><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Lesson 3</span></b>: Vocabulary review and practice 2 (available in two levels)<br /><br />Scroll all the way down for the teachers' notes for the vocabulary activities for both levels.<br /><br /><div nbsp="" style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto;">&nbsp; <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/196184580/2013-News-Quiz-Vocab-Review-higher" nbsp="" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View 2013 News Quiz Vocab Review_higher on Scribd">2013 News Quiz Vocab Review_higher</a>&nbsp;</div><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="0.708006279434851" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_73115" scrolling="no" src="//www.scribd.com/embeds/196184580/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;access_key=key-75wikoj2f0ixtuzva5g&amp;show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe><br /><br /><div nbsp="" style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto;">&nbsp; <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/196186786/2013-News-Quiz-Vocab-Review-lower" nbsp="" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View 2013 News Quiz Vocab Review_lower on Scribd">2013 News Quiz Vocab Review_lower</a>&nbsp;</div><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="0.708006279434851" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_34991" scrolling="no" src="//www.scribd.com/embeds/196186786/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;access_key=key-20ztem8yl42x5modc3il&amp;show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe><br /><br /><div nbsp="" style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto;">&nbsp; <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/196193791/2013-News-Quiz-Vocab-Review-Teachers-Notes" nbsp="" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View 2013 News Quiz Vocab Review - Teachers' Notes on Scribd">2013 News Quiz Vocab Review - Teachers' Notes</a>&nbsp;</div><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="0.708006279434851" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_75417" scrolling="no" src="//www.scribd.com/embeds/196193791/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;access_key=key-1yw78wzqkm6w1rnwape3&amp;show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-18017561013608475792013-12-31T14:26:00.001+00:002014-03-01T13:04:46.492+00:00End-of-year news quiz 2013<b><i>Traditional quiz for your first lesson in 2014</i></b><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lhsl71ZxFS4/UsLPOSeCHwI/AAAAAAAAAlM/gPG4f1StFis/s1600/Mandela.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lhsl71ZxFS4/UsLPOSeCHwI/AAAAAAAAAlM/gPG4f1StFis/s1600/Mandela.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/45582474@N02/" target="_blank">lasanta.com.ec</a>&nbsp;via Flickr<br />[CC BY 2.0]</td></tr></tbody></table>For some reason I had a hard time coming up with news items for this year's quiz. Not that the year was uneventful but somehow there were no sex scandals, jumps from space or viral videos which usually make good questions for the quiz. There were lots of deaths though, which is reflected in the questions, and while we're on the topic I'd like to mention that our field has also lost three notable figures in 2013: Leo Van Lier, Earl Stevick and Dave Willis (see my tribute&nbsp;<a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2013/10/dave-willis-lexical-syllabus_4913.html%E2%80%8E" target="_blank">HERE</a>)<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />Anyhow, as in the past, the quiz comes in two versions: the upper level version is suitable for upper-intermediate/advanced level students (B2 +) and the easier, lower level version for lower intermediate students (B1 -). The detailed 7-page teachers notes (scroll all the way down) provide ideas on how to use the quiz with your students and how to explore the language from the quiz. In a few days, as usual, I will post activities for reviewing the lexis from the quiz. Check back in the New Year.<br /><br /><b><i>Update (5/1/14): Vocabulary review activities are ready - click <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2014/01/news-quiz-2013-vocabulary.html" target="_blank">HERE</a></i></b><br /><h3><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Quiz</span></b></h3><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ol><li>Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful storms in recorded history, caused massive destruction and claimed the lives of more than 5,000 people. What country was hit the hardest?</li><li>Of all newly born babies in 2013, George Alexander Louis was probably the most eagerly anticipated. Why did he receive a lot of media&nbsp;</li><li>Thousands of new English words are coined every year. The prestigious Oxford Dictionary picked “selfie” as the word of the year 2013. What does it mean?</li><li>What British football club and its fans bid farewell to Sir Alex Ferguson who retired as its manager after 26 years?</li><li>Like a scene out of a sci-fi movie, the skies over Chelyabinsk in Central Russia were set ablaze by a massive explosion on a chilly February morning. What was it?</li><li>Thousands of people gathered in the small village of Qunu in December 2013 to pay their last respects to a famous politician and civil rights fighter who was laid to rest there. What’s his name?</li><li>Andy Murray won the men’s final at Wimbledon becoming the first British tennis player to win the trophy in 77 years. Who did he play against in the final?</li><li>After five successful seasons, a ground-breaking TV drama about a terminally ill school teacher who turns to manufacturing drugs to provide a nest egg for his family drew to a close in September 2013. What is it called?</li><li>Former British PM Margaret Thatcher passed away in April 2013 after a long struggle with poor health. How many terms did she serve as Prime Minister after taking office in 1979?</li><li>Who are the Tsarnaev brothers and why did they make headlines in 2013?</li><li>Pope Benedict XVI became the first Pope in almost 600 years to resign of his own will. What country does his successor Pope Francis come from?</li><li>In order to save the country from economic collapse, the government of Cyprus came up with a controversial plan which caused a backlash among the local population and numerous expats living on the island. What was the decision?</li><li>Film star Paul Walker met his death in a tragic car crash in November 2013. What’s the name of the film series in which he played an undercover cop turned street racer?</li><li>Why were thousands of meat products withdrawn from sale across Europe in January 2013?</li><li>How long did the American computer specialist and whistleblower Edward Snowden spend in a Moscow airport before being granted asylum in Russia?</li><li>Former child star Myley Cyrus caused controversy with her outrageous performance at the MTV Video Music Awards 2013. What’s the name of the character she played in a children’s TV series in her more innocent years?</li></ol><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Happy New Year!</b></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div nbsp="" style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto;">&nbsp; <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/194832138/2013-News-Quiz-higher" nbsp="" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View 2013 News Quiz_higher on Scribd">2013 News Quiz_higher with ANSWERS</a>&nbsp;</div><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="0.772922022279349" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_78209" scrolling="no" src="//www.scribd.com/embeds/194832138/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;access_key=key-1wpmehhccuumiaxyauuh&amp;show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div nbsp="" style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto;">&nbsp; <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/194829038/2013-News-Quiz-lower%20with%20ANSWERS" nbsp="" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View 2013 News Quiz lower on Scribd">2013 News Quiz lower with ANSWERS</a>&nbsp;</div><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="0.772922022279349" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_29153" scrolling="no" src="//www.scribd.com/embeds/194829038/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;access_key=key-t8bbr3mhc2tm5xx2qwt&amp;show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div nbsp="" style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto;">&nbsp; <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/194834222/2013-News-Quiz-Teachers-Notes" nbsp="" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View 2013 News Quiz Teachers Notes on Scribd">2013 News Quiz Teachers Notes</a>&nbsp;</div><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="0.772922022279349" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_25272" scrolling="no" src="//www.scribd.com/embeds/194834222/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;access_key=key-2mml4jfwnfmzv2opjakr&amp;show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-27486813633817307972013-12-29T10:30:00.002+00:002014-03-01T13:12:15.394+00:00Top 3 web tools of 2013<div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i_bmsgpnhBc/UsqhINQlyJI/AAAAAAAAAl4/FZdGBUqUBfQ/s1600/Quizlet_snap_Look_answer.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i_bmsgpnhBc/UsqhINQlyJI/AAAAAAAAAl4/FZdGBUqUBfQ/s1600/Quizlet_snap_Look_answer.png" height="118" width="200" /></a></div>As the year draws to a close it’s time for various top 10, 20 etc lists. I am going to limit myself to 3 and share the web tools that have undoubtedly been my favourite this year. Three different tools - three different uses.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /></div><h3><span style="color: #783f04;"><a href="http://lyricstraining.com/" target="_blank">Lyricstraining</a></span> –<span style="color: #444444;"> Listening</span></h3><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #444444;"><b>Listen to various songs and complete gaps in the lyrics.</b></span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">I first learned about this tool at the IATEFL conference in Brighton in 2011 – interestingly, it was mentioned during one of the Pecha Kucha presentations in the evening. I found my notes from the conference about a year later and this year it has been one of my favourite tools. I hope my students enjoy it as much as I do!<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #783f04;"><b>How it works</b></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Choose a song. Then choose one of three available levels (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced) and click on play. As the song plays you have to complete the gaps in the lyrics. The difference between the levels is the number of gaps. Regardless of students’ level I always recommend starting with the Beginner level where you have on average 20 random gaps (they change every time) in a 4 minute song. Advanced level is all blank and you have to write all the lyrics yourself. The best thing about this tool is that the song stops playing until you supply the correct answer. You can go back and listen from the beginning of a line or give up and have the missing word displayed for you. This quick help guide shows the main functions:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XXFfrs4BewY/Ur_xYpAYtQI/AAAAAAAAAkc/BZxTc8NcZFU/s1600/LyricstrainingHelp.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XXFfrs4BewY/Ur_xYpAYtQI/AAAAAAAAAkc/BZxTc8NcZFU/s400/LyricstrainingHelp.png" height="119" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Besides obviously being a great tool for practising authentic listening, a lot of gaps can be filled in by predicting what comes next using the knowledge of language (grammar and vocabulary) or what is known as bottom-up processing. Also, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-23357833" target="_blank">a recent study</a>&nbsp;confirms what I've always believed in - language learners who listen to songs in a foreign language and sing along make faster progress, particularly when it comes to the phrasal lexicon.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #783f04;"><b>Some suggestions</b></span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">(personal choices - mainly ballads)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a href="http://lyricstraining.com/play/9308/john_lennon/jealous_guy" target="_blank">John Lennon – Jealous Guy</a> (easy)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a href="http://lyricstraining.com/play/18916/bruno_mars/when_i_was_your_man" target="_blank">Bruno Mars – When I Was Your Man</a>&nbsp;(a bit harder)</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a href="http://lyricstraining.com/play/8805/adele/someone_like_you" target="_blank">Adele – Someone Like You</a>&nbsp;(medium difficulty)&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><h3><span style="color: #783f04;"><a href="http://www.quizlet.com/" target="_blank">Quizlet</a></span> <span style="color: #444444;">– vocabulary</span></h3><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #444444;"><b>Learn vocabulary in a variety of modes on the computer, tablet or smartphone</b></span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Most of you will be familiar with Quizlet. It’s a website for creating online flashcards: a word (known as “term”) on one side; translation or definition on the other. However, if approached creatively, Quizlet can be used to practise chunks of language as well. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Some examples</span></b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Have a look at some of the sets I’ve created:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Everyday phrases: <a href="http://quizlet.com/_jqc7r" target="_blank">http://quizlet.com/_jqc7r</a><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Politicians &amp; embarrassing situations: <a href="http://quizlet.com/_da44c" target="_blank">http://quizlet.com/_da44c</a>&nbsp;- In this set I don’t give definitions at all. Instead, students are given the first letter of a chunk we learned in class.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Delexicalised verbs and their common collocates: <a href="http://quizlet.com/_gto6p" target="_blank">http://quizlet.com/_gto6p</a><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #783f04;"><b>How it works</b></span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">You have to create an account or sign in with Facebook. Click on Create at the top of the screen to create a new set. Give your set a title, for example Travel or Health. Then start entering the items you want your students to practise. After you’ve finished, click on Save at the bottom and your set is now ready to be shared with your students. To create a set of collocations, enter the first word (e.g.&nbsp;<i>solve</i>) in the right column under Definitions and the second word (e.g.&nbsp;t<i>he problem</i>) in the left column under Terms. See example <a href="http://quizlet.com/_ejpee" target="_blank">HERE</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">When your set is ready, click on Share (<b>1</b>) in the top right hand corner of the page to get a short link (like the ones listed above) which you can send to your students.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">When your students open the link they should start with Flash cards. This is the first mode which allows them to simply browse through the list of new items. I usually ask my students to select Definition under Start with. To check if they remember the word they should click anywhere on the card to flip it over.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qk5ZuQ8OFIU/Ur_z7W8-ppI/AAAAAAAAAkw/gNKOIF2GvIQ/s1600/quizlet_example.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qk5ZuQ8OFIU/Ur_z7W8-ppI/AAAAAAAAAkw/gNKOIF2GvIQ/s320/quizlet_example.png" height="149" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p><br /></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p><br /></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">After your students have gone through the set, they can choose one of the following review modes at the top of the screen. The modes are listed here in order of difficulty, i.e moving from mere recognition of new items (<i>receptive knowledge</i>) to being able to recall them (<i>productive knowledge</i>).<br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><b>Scatter</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">The terms and definitions (or whatever you entered under these categories) are scattered on the screen and you put them back together. If matched correctly, they disappear from the screen. Perfect for matching parts of collocations.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #444444;">Speller</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">As the name suggests, it’s good for working on spelling. You type in the words as they are spoken.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #444444;">Test</span></b>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal">This mode generates a graded quiz. Questions can be open-ended, multiple choice or true/false. Possibly &nbsp;more suitable for teachers and for words with definitions / translations.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><b>Learn&nbsp;</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">tests students’ active knowledge of the items. They have to type in the answers themselves.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #444444;">Space Race</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Or simply&nbsp;<b style="color: #444444;">Race&nbsp;</b>is the most difficult game. You have type in the correct answer as the definitions shoot across the screen.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Advanced features</span></b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-b8QzzN1OlFk/Ur_zYWXa3uI/AAAAAAAAAko/KUzeInMedT8/s1600/Quizlet_tools_adv.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-b8QzzN1OlFk/Ur_zYWXa3uI/AAAAAAAAAko/KUzeInMedT8/s320/Quizlet_tools_adv.png" height="111" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Some of the excellent extra features include the following:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">- You can add images to the definitions.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">- You can “adopt” sets created by other teachers and modify them. (click on Copy - <b>2</b>)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">- You can combine your sets. (see under More tools - <b>3</b>)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">- You can print sets or combined sets and use them for paper-based activities in class. (<b>4</b>)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kHQubLoEDwk/Ur_4vyql6sI/AAAAAAAAAk8/3txhiX9et_c/s1600/quizlet+mobile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kHQubLoEDwk/Ur_4vyql6sI/AAAAAAAAAk8/3txhiX9et_c/s320/quizlet+mobile.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a>But this isn’t all. You can also create folders and organize your sets by levels or courses. You can create classes and assign a few sets to the same class or the same set to different classes. These two options are available from the home page after you’ve logged in.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Finally, if your students have smartphones – most of them do - they can install the Quizlet app. Then they have to find you (give them your username) and select one of the sets or classes you have created.</div><o:p></o:p><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i><b>For other lexical tools, check out</b></i><b> <span style="color: #444444;"><a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/p/essential-lexical-tools.html" target="_blank">Essential Lexical Tools</a></span></b> <i><b>on this site</b></i>.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p><br /></o:p></div><h3><span style="color: #783f04;"><a href="http://www.textivate.com/" target="_blank">Textivate</a></span><span style="color: #444444;"> – pre- and post-reading&nbsp;</span></h3><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="color: #444444;"><b>Break the text apart and get students to put it back together</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p><br /></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p><b style="color: #783f04;">How it works</b>&nbsp;</o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Copy and paste a text and then choose one of the modes / activities: tiles, shuffle, fill in the letters or the hangman. I usually use short texts from <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/news/" target="_blank">CBBC News Round</a> or <a href="http://tinytexts.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Tiny Texts</a>&nbsp; Recommendation: 18 tiles for a text of 1000 words – anything longer that gets a bit confusing. Reconstruction activities of this kind force the learner to move from semantic processing (when they mainly pay attention to the message) to syntactic processing (when attention is paid to how the message is constructed).<i>&nbsp;</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i>See other ideas for revisiting texts (not involving technology) in my article on the TeachingEnglish website -</i> click&nbsp;<a href="http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/revisiting-texts" target="_blank">HERE</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Unfortunately, as with all good things, Textivate didn’t remain a free app for long. At the end of March this year they introduced various pay plans. A free version was still available but it didn’t allow you to save the activities and send them to your students so that they could review the text at home. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">As I was writing this, I realised that even the basic free plan had been discontinued. So even if you want to use Textivate in class using a projector or IWB you need to pay a subscription fee. A teacher on the in-service course I taught earlier this year recently told me that she’d got so hooked on this tool and it saves her so much time in class that 10 pounds per year is really worth it. So perhaps, considering there are not so many language-focused tools on the web I’ll fork out 10 pounds next year so that it stays my favourite app in 2014 too.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Are you familiar with any of the above tools? What tools have been your favourite this year? Looking forward to your responses in the comments below.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-85999478243321238712013-12-20T09:58:00.000+00:002014-12-15T18:14:46.787+00:00The blogger behind this blog<div class="MsoNormal"><b><i>In response to the blog tag challenge</i></b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--bWnqxNGy1Y/UrQMJeEspxI/AAAAAAAAAiU/Ai_xoEYNrdE/s1600/playing+tag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--bWnqxNGy1Y/UrQMJeEspxI/AAAAAAAAAiU/Ai_xoEYNrdE/s200/playing+tag.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">By <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/41460120@N04/" target="_blank">Masachi Mochida</a></span> via Flickr</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">[CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]</span></td></tr></tbody></table>I’ve been tagged. Twice. In a blog challenge the idea of which is to post 11 random facts about oneself, answer 11 questions posted by the blogger who tagged you and then pass the baton by posting 11 questions and tagging 11 other bloggers. Why 11 - I have no idea. If it had been up to me I’d have gone for 13 (since it’s 2013) like last year’s Adam Simpson’s <a href="http://www.teachthemenglish.com/2012/11/12-from-12-the-best-of-your-posts-from-this-year-blog-challenge/" target="_blank">12 of 2012 blog challenge</a> (see&nbsp;<a href="http://www.blogger.com/leoxicon.blogspot.com/2012/12/top-blog-posts-of-2012.html">HERE</a>).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">Anyhow, I’ve been tagged this week by both <a href="http://elt-resourceful.com/2013/12/16/everything-you-never-wanted-to-know-about-me-in-response-to-marisa-constantinides-tag-challenge/" target="_blank">Rachael Roberts</a> who named me as one of her 11 favourite bloggers (by the way, it’s mutual) and <a href="http://www.blogger.com/freerangekef.blogspot.com/2013/12/responding-to-carol-goodeys-tag.html" target="_blank">KathyFagan</a>, whose blog I am less familiar with (but it’s going to change!) and who, unlike Rachael, I haven’t met. Thank you both.&nbsp; So here we go…<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><h3><span style="color: #783f04;">11 Random facts about me</span></h3><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yXyBJHBzzJ8/UrQRjHPVFxI/AAAAAAAAAi4/-looojSkz4Q/s1600/Cocktails.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yXyBJHBzzJ8/UrQRjHPVFxI/AAAAAAAAAi4/-looojSkz4Q/s200/Cocktails.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My latest creations: <br />White Lady and Fuzzy Navel</td></tr></tbody></table><ol><li>I like making salads.</li><li>I’ve recently taken up cocktail-making as a hobby. I think it’s a hobby that provides a lot of health benefits in the form of Vitamin C - I normally use one freshly squeezed lemon per cocktail.&nbsp;</li><li>At the moment I am addicted to TripAdvisor</li><li>Contrary to what many people believe, I go to TESOL France every year at my own expense. Last year it fell on my birthday, and I threw a <a href="http://fourc.ca/lafolie/" target="_blank">pre-conference birthday party</a> where I met for the first time lots of fellow ELT bloggers / tweeters.</li><li>I don’t like okra but otherwise I eat just about everything.</li><li>Every Thursday night I go to art openings and then complain about how bad the wine/free food was.</li><li>I refused to join Facebook for a few years until my friends had signed a “petition” and collected more than 30 signatures. I joined it on my birthday a few years ago and immediately had 30+ Facebook friends.</li><li>I’ve flown by plane 165 times –50 or so times out of which in the last 3 years.</li><li>As a child I used to think Alfred Hitchcock was Alfred Hedgehog.</li><li>I don't like Skype</li><li>Before my career in TEFL I used to work in tourism in various roles: Rep, tour guide, travel agent and incentive travel consultant</li></ol><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H_f01n4lNsk/UrQR5lb4v7I/AAAAAAAAAjA/q8tm9yYvGHg/s1600/P+Townsend+opening+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H_f01n4lNsk/UrQR5lb4v7I/AAAAAAAAAjA/q8tm9yYvGHg/s320/P+Townsend+opening+2.jpg" height="189" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At an art opening in pyjamas (because it was across the road)</td></tr></tbody></table></o:p></div><h3><span style="color: #783f04;"><br /></span></h3><h3><span style="color: #783f04;">11 questions asked by Rachael and Kathy</span></h3><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Since both Rachael and Kathy tagged me I am taking the liberty here and answering a mix of both their questions. The first five questions were posted by Kathy and questions 6 to 11 are Rachael’s (the numbers of the questions are as they appeared in their lists)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: #783f04;">1. What is one book, blog post, article, presentation, or research paper that really changed how you think about teaching? &nbsp;How?</span></i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">This one is a no-brainer. <i>The Lexical Approach </i>(1993)&nbsp;by Michael Lewis without any doubt. I was thrilled to finally meet Michael Lewis in person at the Lexical conference in London earlier this year and honoured to edit two publications dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the book: ETAI Forum and Pilgrim's online magazine <i>Humanising Language Teaching</i>. If you still haven’t seen it: you can find it <a href="http://www.hltmag.co.uk/dec13/index.htm" target="_blank">HERE</a>.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: #783f04;">2. Which season of the year do you like the best? &nbsp;Why?</span></i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Another easy one: summer. In my case it starts about mid-July and lasts till about mid-October. Three months of doing (almost) nothing, lying on the beach and travelling.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #783f04;"><i>3. How many languages (other than English) can you use at high beginning or higher? &nbsp;If any, what are they?</i></span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">French, Greek, Hebrew, Russian. Readers of this blog may have figured that out already as I use a lot of examples from these languages. It has to be noted that my interlanguage in most of these fluctuates a lot since I am a fast learner and fast forgetter. I also used to speak some Spanish but currently it as regressed to a beginner level.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #783f04;"><i>4. The bartender says "What'll it be?" &nbsp;What is it?</i></span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Don’t trust bartenders anymore (see Random Fact #2). So it would be just a pint of lager or Long Island Iced Tea – because you can’t really go wrong with it.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #783f04;"><i>5. What is the most recent musical performance you have attended?</i></span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">I think it was Pet Shop Boys' recent tour Electric.It is also the only artist I have seen live twice in my life – in different countries.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: #783f04;">6 What was your first paid job?</span></i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">I was conducting phone interviews and collecting preliminary data about job applicants for a project at Ernst &amp; Young.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: #783f04;">7 What five famous people would you invite to a dinner party, and why?</span></i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">A tough one, this one. I’d really have to think hard. Am I allowed to include dead people? Then perhaps Alfred Hitchcock (for his wit), Helen Mirren (she’s fantastic and if she declines Dame Judy Dench). Musicians: George Michael or Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys) - again depending on the availability. Is it five already? Oh and the former director of advertising at Benetton responsible for some of the most powerful and controversial ad campaigns in the past 20 years.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Definitely no politicians – past or present!<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: #783f04;">8 What’s the first website you check/go on each day? Why?</span></i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Facebook. For the fear of missing out&nbsp; (FOMO). But then again, I don’t watch the news / read the papers so I get my news updates through the Facebook feed.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: #783f04;">9 What can you remember about the first class you ever taught?</span></i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">There were 16 people, sitting in 4 groups of 4.The class was very mixed ranging from Intermediate to Pre-Advanced and I still remember some of their names. I was using an OHP and after the usual introductions and get to know activities we did a unit from True Colors. It went well, I think.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #783f04;"><i>10 Flowers or chocolates?</i></span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Neither. Wine please!<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: #783f04;">11 How do you feel about reality TV shows?</span></i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">I generally don’t watch TV – but like a good TVseries every now and then<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><h3><b><span style="color: #783f04;">11 bloggers</span></b></h3><div class="MsoNormal">I tried not to tag the same people my taggers (nor their taggers!) have included in their lists. The ones below haven't been tagged, as far as I'm aware, and I highly recommend checking out their blogs:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><b><i>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Blogger</i>&nbsp; - &nbsp;Link to their blog</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"></div><ol><li><i style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://twitter.com/hoprea">Henrick Oprea</a></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> – </span><a href="http://hoprea.wordpress.com/" style="font-family: inherit;">Doing Some Thinking</a></li><li><i style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://twitter.com/luizotavioELT">Luiz Otavio Barros</a></i><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;–&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.luizotaviobarros.com/" style="font-family: inherit;">Think ELT</a></li><li><i style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://twitter.com/willycard">Willy Cardoso</a></i><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;–&nbsp;</span><a href="http://authenticteaching.wordpress.com/" style="font-family: inherit;">Authentic Teaching</a></li><li><i style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://twitter.com/vickyloras">Vicky Loras</a> – </i><a href="http://www.blogger.com/vickyloras.wordpress.com/" style="font-family: inherit;">Vicky Loras Blog</a></li><li><i style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://twitter.com/jo_sayers">Jonathan Sayers</a> - <a href="http://www.eltplustech.com/">ELT + Technology</a></i></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/ij64" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Ian James</i></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> - </span><a href="http://tefltecher.wordpress.com/" style="font-family: inherit;">TEFLTecher</a></li><li><i style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://twitter.com/muranava">Mura Nava</a></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> – </span><a href="http://eflnotes.wordpress.com/" style="font-family: inherit;">EFL Notes</a></li><li><i style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://twitter.com/chiasuan">Chia Suan Chong</a></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> – </span><a href="http://chiasuanchong.com/" style="font-family: inherit;">Chia Suan Chong</a></li><li><i style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://twitter.com/steve_muir">Steve Muir</a></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> – </span><a href="http://allatc.wordpress.com/" style="font-family: inherit;">allatc</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/_divyamadhavan" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Divya Madhavan</i></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> – </span><a href="http://divyamadhavan.wordpress.com/" style="font-family: inherit;">Divya Madhavan</a></li><li><i style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://twitter.com/RebuffetBroadus">Christina Rebuffet-Broadus</a></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> - </span><a href="http://ilovetefl.wordpress.com/" style="font-family: inherit;">iLOVEtefl</a></li></ol><br /><h3><b><span style="color: #783f04;">11 questions for other bloggers</span></b></h3><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ol><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">What is your favourite level to teach?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you had the time to blog about something other than education / ELT what would it be?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">What takes you longer: writing a blog post or inserting hyperlinks into it?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">A phone call or text message? Why?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Cats or dogs? (No need to explain why)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you were a fruit what would you be?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">What kind of jokes do you like?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">What’s your favourite computer font?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">What present would you like to receive for your next birthday? (that is if you celebrate birthdays)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">Why do you think almost every blogger in this chain challenge has asked a question about reality TV shows?</span></li></ol><div><span style="line-height: 18px;">Thanks. It was fun.</span><br /><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 18px;"><b><i>UPDATE: As I was writing this, <a href="http://vickyloras.wordpress.com/2013/12/21/eleven-continued-tagged-by-leo-selivan-leoselivan/" target="_blank">Vicky Loras</a>, who I included in my list of 11 bloggers, tagged me too. What a coincidence!</i></b></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-45338012256745368612013-12-07T16:23:00.002+00:002014-12-07T19:03:10.098+00:00Love Actually: activities, ideas, vocabulary<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c9yvXy21R2w/UqNJAp7bY1I/AAAAAAAAAhY/jY9FWAF2gv8/s1600/love+actually+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c9yvXy21R2w/UqNJAp7bY1I/AAAAAAAAAhY/jY9FWAF2gv8/s200/love+actually+cover.jpg" height="191" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image source:<br /><a href="http://www.universalstudiosentertainment.com/love-actually/">www.universalstudiosentertainment.com</a></td></tr></tbody></table>I use a lot of films in my teaching: not just occasional Youtube clips but full-length authentic feature films, and I’ve been wanting for a while to start a new section on this blog where I would upload my film-based materials. I thought December would be a suitable time to share materials for many people’s favourite Christmas film <i>Love Actually</i>.<br /><i><b>Warning</b>: some scenes are suitable for adults only</i><br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><h3><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Activities actually</span></b></h3>The activities are divided into three parts. They are not particularly imaginative - mainly questions to answer while watching. Feel free to adapt them.<br /><a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35483975/blog/Love%20actually%20intro.doc" target="_blank">Pages 1-2</a> are for the first part of the film (until 4 weeks to Christmas title appears )<br /><a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35483975/blog/Love%20actually%20focus%20on%20characters.doc" target="_blank">Pages 3-8</a>&nbsp; focus on various characters. You can divide the class into 4 groups and assign each group different characters. Because it's quite a big chunk of the film (more than an hour) students can watch this part at home.<br />Alternatively, you can focus on (a pair of) characters each lesson with the whole class - this is what I normally do - but it involves lots of skipping back and forth to select the scenes with the character(s) you need.<br /><a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35483975/blog/Love%20actually%20finale.doc" target="_blank">Page 9</a>&nbsp;is for the final scenes of the film (from Christmas Eve title onward)<br /><br /><div nbsp="" style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto;">&nbsp; Download all the pages here&nbsp;<a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/35483975/blog/Love%20actually%20ALL.doc" nbsp="" style="text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" title="Download Love Actually handouts">Love Actually ALL</a>&nbsp;or preview them below:</div><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="undefined" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_78746" scrolling="no" src="//www.scribd.com/embeds/190123745/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe><br /><h3><b><span style="color: #783f04;"><br /></span></b></h3><h3><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Some ideas actually</span></b></h3><b><span style="color: #444444;">Split-viewing</span></b><br />Throughout the film there are a lot of opportunities for <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2014/10/generate-language-silent-clips.html" target="_blank">split-viewing</a>. You can either ask half the class to turn their backs to the TV/screen or go out of the classroom. The other half have to describe to them what is happening - or what happened. For example, this scene where Jamie and Aurelia jump into the pond to save the manuscript:<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="300" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/DsugPaXH4kA" width="530"></iframe><br /><span style="color: #444444;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #444444;"><b>Press conference</b></span><br />Before you watch the press-conference scene with the British PM and American president, pause the video and get your students to role play the press conference. Nominate two students who will play the roles of the two politicians. Other students acting as journalists ask them questions.<br />You can also send the journalists out of the class to work on the questions (split-viewing) so that they don't see the scene immediately preceding the press conference (when the US President kisses Natalie). It always make for a fun role play as the two students playing the roles of the PM and President will be the only ones who know what really happened.<br /><br /><b><span style="color: #444444;">Dictogloss</span></b><br />Harry buys a necklace - see the lesson plan <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.co.il/2011/12/would-you-like-it-gift-wrapped.html" target="_blank">HERE</a><br /><br /><b><span style="color: #444444;">Sound off</span></b><br />There are a number of scenes you can play with the sound off and ask your students to guess what's happening or write a dialogue for the scene. For example, the scene when Juliet calls on Mark to look for a videotape.<br /><br /><b><span style="color: #444444;">Songs</span></b><br />There are lots of songs from the film soundtrack you can bring to class. For example, "Both Sides Now" by Joni Mitchell - great for discussion about love and life.<br /><br /><b><span style="color: #444444;">Reading</span></b><br />This article has a great overview of the film summarising the main storylines:<br /><a href="http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2007/12/10-reasons-why-love-actually-actually-should-be-your-cinematic-christmas-tradition/" target="_blank">10 reasons why Love Actually actually should be your cinematic Christmas tradition</a><br /><br /><h3><span style="color: #783f04;"><b>Vocabulary actually</b></span></h3>The whole script of the film can be found <a href="https://diigo.com/01an0p" target="_blank">HERE</a>. I have highlighted in <span style="background-color: #6aa84f;">green</span> and in&nbsp;<span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">pink</span> some lexical items (words and phrases) that you might want to focus on in class.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Mhdb3yfpWdE/UqNHS70FwTI/AAAAAAAAAhM/Nn6AdGL6-hg/s1600/love_actually_script_diigo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Mhdb3yfpWdE/UqNHS70FwTI/AAAAAAAAAhM/Nn6AdGL6-hg/s400/love_actually_script_diigo.png" height="147" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />There is also a <span style="color: #444444;"><b>Quizlet set</b></span> (click <a href="http://quizlet.com/30245333/flashcards" target="_blank">HERE</a>) which contain the items highlighted in&nbsp;<span style="background-color: #6aa84f;">green</span>&nbsp;(plus some extra words thrown in) for additional practice and review. Alternatively, you may want to do it as a pre-watching activity.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://quizlet.com/30245333/flashcards" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UMu_2dcC4xg/UqNFbL2RwdI/AAAAAAAAAhA/FGCt2-lCQes/s400/love+actually+quizlet.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />Hope your students not only enjoy watching the film but learn some language too!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #444444;">Looking for more video-based activities?&nbsp;</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #444444;">Click <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/search/label/Clips" target="_blank">HERE</a>&nbsp;for activities based on short clips</span></b></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-50746664799352776872013-12-01T18:07:00.001+00:002014-10-31T18:09:39.572+00:00Going experimental at TESOL France<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ikx9iDxP2gg/UpttsfY4BBI/AAAAAAAAAgg/a3wEuQMP2sk/s1600/tesol-france-conference_13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ikx9iDxP2gg/UpttsfY4BBI/AAAAAAAAAgg/a3wEuQMP2sk/s200/tesol-france-conference_13.jpg" height="200" width="140" /></a><i>A summary of the <a href="http://www.tesol-france.org/Colloquium13.php">TESOL France’s&nbsp; 32nd annual colloquium </a>&nbsp;which took place in Paris between 22 and 24 November 2013.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">ELT conferences often have a title or theme with various presentations loosely related to it. TESOL France’s annual colloquium held in Paris in November isn’t one of them. However, this year’s colloquium, my third, had an underlying theme for me – <b>experimental practice</b>. Here are highlights of some of the sessions I went to.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /><a name='more'></a><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><h3><span style="color: #783f04;"><b>What do you <i>need</i>? A&nbsp;bit of TPRS, perhaps?</b></span></h3></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">After this year’s unusual opening on Friday - instead of a traditional opening plenary the organisers decided to experiment with a brief welcome address by the chair of TESOL followed by mingling - the first session I went to was Judith Logsdon-Dubois's on TPRS. I had virtually got to know Judith through Twitter and her comments on this blog, but TPRS turned out to be not quite what I’d expected. It is not a twist on TPR (Total Physical Response), an “alternative” ELT approach of the 1970s inspired by Krashen’s theories. TPRS stands for Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling, which is again strongly influenced by Krashen’s input hypothesis. Just to remind you, according the input hypothesis we acquire language when we receive a lot of comprehensible input, i.e. input which is just above the current level of our language competence.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">After briefly outlining Krashen’s model of language acquisition - it was interesting as we had just covered Krashen’s five hypotheses with my students on a SLA course I teach - Judith demoed a TPRS lesson with the participants taking on different roles. I was given the role of a structure counter and had to count the number of times the target structure occurred in the lesson - whether in the teacher’s input or learners’ production which of course, in accordance with Krashen, was not forced. The chosen target structure was <i>I need + noun phrase (NP)</i>&nbsp;and its variations (<i>do you need...</i> /&nbsp;<i>what do you need</i> etc.). Need + NP poses a difficulty for French speakers as the equivalent idea is realised in French by the verb "have" + noun: <i>avoir besoin de</i> (I have the need for).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">I counted 39 occurrences which Judith admitted wasn’t enough for acquisition (subconscious acquisition as opposed to conscious learning in Krashen’s terms) to take place. In TPRS a target item or structure has to occur 70 times! Hmmm I wonder if there is research to support this figure but TPRS is something I’d definitely like to experiment with, especially with lower level students. To find out more about this method, check out Judy's blog:&nbsp;<a href="http://tprswitch.jimdo.com/">http://tprswitch.jimdo.com</a><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="color: #783f04;"><br /></span></b><br /><h3><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Dipping your toes into something new</span></b></h3></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a href="http://www.mikejharrison.com/" target="_blank">Mike Harrison</a> started his Saturday morning session on experimental practice by asking us to close our eyes and take a mental screen capture of a recent class we taught. We were then instructed to go through a series of modifications by zooming in and out of the image, putting ourselves in and taking ourselves out of the picture, reducing the light and making the image clearer - Mike is a great believer in using images in ELT.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3BOIQD4SMyk/Uptmt6g8gHI/AAAAAAAAAgQ/8ZoO27zWx7Y/s1600/Mike+Harrison+TESOL+Fra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3BOIQD4SMyk/Uptmt6g8gHI/AAAAAAAAAgQ/8ZoO27zWx7Y/s400/Mike+Harrison+TESOL+Fra.jpg" height="251" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mike Harrison in action. &nbsp;This room was assigned this year <br />to all my favourite presenters &nbsp;(including myself)</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">After clarifying what experimental or exploratory practice means, Mike shared the results of a recent poll he conducted in the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/iatefl/" target="_blank">IATEFL group on Facebook</a> to see what methods teachers have experimented with throughout their career. Task-based language teaching (TBLT) came at the top of the list. Mike’s main message was that teachers – whether novice or seasoned – should constantly push themselves to try something completely different. Some of the ideas he elicited from the audience included:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">- Keeping a journal: when you embark on an experiment, jot down what you think is going to happen and then see what really happens<br />- Ask students what they would like to do differently<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">- One idea (which came from Rakesh Bhanot) was regarding attending conferences: try going to the most “unlikely” sessions (not the stuff you are normally interested in) – this is what I certainly did at TESOL France this year. <br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">It was an engaging session that really made us think and Mike’s Power Point with minimalist, impactful (yes, I said it!) greyscale slides made me green with envy!<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><h3><o:p><b><span style="color: #783f04;">Welcome to the jungle</span></b></o:p></h3></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LSadjuItjiE/UptvI4EyVXI/AAAAAAAAAgs/w9yvv2iz5RU/s1600/Walk-on-the-Wild-Side.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LSadjuItjiE/UptvI4EyVXI/AAAAAAAAAgs/w9yvv2iz5RU/s200/Walk-on-the-Wild-Side.jpg" height="200" width="140" /></a>After a comfortably long lunch break (they always are at TESOL France) funky jungle music greeted us upon entering the same room for <a href="http://ilovetefl.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Christina Rebuffet-Broadus</a>and <a href="http://teflhelperblog.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Jennie Wright</a>’s session&nbsp;<i>Walk On The Wild Side: The Experimental Practice Jungle</i>. Their workshop picked up where Mike left off and was practical, entertaining and heavy on audience participation. We were divided into groups and asked to experiment with the methods we were the least familiar wish, such us CLIL, Flipped classroom, Dogme, Translation 2.0 (a revived interest in Translation in ELT)<o:p></o:p></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">The presenters confessed that their session was also in a way an experiment before presenting <a href="http://the-round.com/labs/walk-on-the-wild-side/">their new book</a> on the topic which has just come out on theround.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><h3 id="Bodytalk"><span style="color: #783f04;">Body talk</span></h3></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Although it may not seem immediately obvious, Scott Thornbury's plenary <i>The Learning Body</i> fit nicely into the experimental theme. Starting with a philosophical premise that mind and body are all one, Scott extended it to language learning showing how the mind is:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"></div><ul><li><b><span style="color: #444444;">embodied</span></b>&nbsp;- metaphorical language we use is closely linked to our physical experience of the world, e.g. the choice of particles in phrasal verbs: <i>things are looking UP</i>, <i>grow UP</i>, <i>&nbsp;prices went UP </i>etc.</li></ul><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"></div><ul><li><b><span style="color: #444444;">embedded</span>&nbsp;-&nbsp;</b>how language is embedded in the physical world, i.e. it is developed, applied in and adapted for context, e.g. how by “mirroring” other people we accommodate to our interlocutors and adapt our language accordingly, e.g. I switch between <i>“flat”</i> and <i>“apartment</i>” depending whether my interlocutor is British or American</li></ul><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"></div><ul><li><b><span style="color: #444444;">extended</span>&nbsp;-&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: normal;">our body is used to help us organise our thoughts,</span>&nbsp;</b>for example,<b>&nbsp;</b>we use gestures when we talk on the phone although our interlocutor cannot see us, which goes to show that gestures are not accompaniments but rather components of speech.</li></ul><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Interestingly, IELTS candidates tend to score higher on the speaking test when they use more gestures.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Xl18emZ0L8M/UptjmrW2OHI/AAAAAAAAAgE/C7gYNJZmpmc/s1600/Scott+plenary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Xl18emZ0L8M/UptjmrW2OHI/AAAAAAAAAgE/C7gYNJZmpmc/s400/Scott+plenary.jpg" height="220" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scott Thornbury (sorry, couldn't get all of him) <br />using gestures at his plenary talk</td></tr></tbody></table></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Also, contrary to the recent trend of plenaries at ELT conferences leaning more towards entertaining rather than educating, this talk kept the balance right. It was thought-provoking and informative. In addition, it was delivered with Scott’s signature wit and accompanied by aptly chosen video clips and insightful quotes ranging from Descartes to Mae West.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://izquotes.com/quote/196211" target="_blank"><img src="http://izquotes.com/quotes-pictures/quote-i-speak-two-languages-body-and-english-mae-west-196211.jpg" height="186" width="400" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p>Overall, a very satisfying conference again - my third and I thought, probably, last year in a row but then I found out that next year's one falls on my birthday again - like<a href="http://fourc.ca/lafolie/" target="_blank"> last year</a>!</o:p></div></div></div></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-40023204050602119182013-10-26T17:16:00.009+01:002013-10-28T00:31:57.558+00:00We are lexically indebted to him<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fft7h2E5QfE/UmwIZzA2C1I/AAAAAAAAAek/mx8JgzVhQjs/s1600/Dave+Willis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fft7h2E5QfE/UmwIZzA2C1I/AAAAAAAAAek/mx8JgzVhQjs/s1600/Dave+Willis.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image source:<br />www.willis-elt.co.uk</td></tr></tbody></table>I opened my Facebook yesterday morning and was saddened to see Chia Suan Chong’s post about the&nbsp;passing of Dave Willis. I went over to Twitter and the feed was already filled with RIPs and condolences. For most in the ELT world Dave Willis’s name is associated with Task-Based Learning. But his contribution to lexical&nbsp;approaches to language teaching&nbsp;is just as outstanding. In fact, his pioneering work on the first Lexical Syllabus predates Michael Lewis’s seminal book by three years, the main difference between the two being words as a starting point for Willis and collocations for Lewis.<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><a name='more'></a><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In the late 1980s Collins published a new EFL textbook co-authored by Dave Willis and his wife Jane. The book was an outcome of the COBUILD (Collins Birmingham University International Database) project – at that time the biggest and most significant attempt to compile a corpus of contemporary English. Simply titled Collins Cobuild English Course, the book was based on a very simple premise: most common words in English, such as <i>do</i>, <i>get</i>, <i>it</i>,&nbsp;<i>way</i> carry most important patterns in the language. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal">Instead of following the usual course of carefully sequenced, item-by-item presentation of the verb <i>To be</i>, followed by the Present Simple, then Present Continuous and other “usual suspects”, the book focused on the meanings of the most frequent words and highlighted patterns associated with them. At the lowest level – there was a total of three – it offered exercises such as this:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iT3Un9bKFTk/UmvesZX2r9I/AAAAAAAAAeU/Ip_ZeMP8R4s/s1600/lexical+syllabus+willis+do+did.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iT3Un9bKFTk/UmvesZX2r9I/AAAAAAAAAeU/Ip_ZeMP8R4s/s400/lexical+syllabus+willis+do+did.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><br /></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media.oxfam.org.uk/images/products/HighStDonated/Zoom/hd_100162072_01.jpg?v=1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://media.oxfam.org.uk/images/products/HighStDonated/Zoom/hd_100162072_01.jpg?v=1" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image source:<br />www.oxfam.org.uk</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">When I was in charge of the book stock and teachers’ resource room at the British Council I was lucky to stumble across two dusty copies of the student’s books- Level 1 and 2 – and “save” them when the teaching centre closed down. Looking at the coursebook now, more than 20 years after it was published, one can see&nbsp;why the ambitious series wasn't the runaway success it should have been. Authentic unscripted dialogues full of false starts and pauses, interspersed with <i>erm</i>s and <i>mhm</i>s with native speakers interrupting each other while engaging in various tasks was too radical a departure from the conventional coursebook format. Add to that things like <i>“At eight o’clock I’m just leaving my house”</i>, <i>“At one o’clock I am normally eating my lunch”</i> (Oh horror! It should be Present Simple!) and the conspicuous absence of traditional grammar labels would surely appear outlandish, if not bizarre, to an ELT practitioner at that time. Mind you, it was the time when the Present Perfect didn’t appear until Unit 6 of the Intermediate level and the texts were carefully vetted to make sure an “unknown” structure hadn’t slipped in to distract the learner’s attention from a specific grammar point being expounded.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">A couple of years later, Willis published a book about the book. <i>The Lexical Syllabus</i> (1990), which is a must read and re-read for any English teacher, was basically about the process of writing the coursebook. Willis describes the rationale behind the groundbreaking coursebook and explains why they chose to focus on 700 most common words – fresh corpus evidence had just come in that these 700 words constitute 70% of English text. The fact that such a small number of words accounts for a very high proportion of English text “shows the enormous power of the common words of English”, states Willis (1990: 46). Using these as a starting point and doing away with the grammar syllabus, the Willis's English Course still covered all the “traditional” grammar points (Present Simple, Conditionals, Modal verbs) and then some. It also highlighted many features of <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2011/11/spoken-grammar.html" target="_blank">spoken grammar</a> which were absent from textbooks around that time, for example “that” for pointing back (<i>So we did that one first. <b>That </b>was the easy one</i>), “as” for when/while (<i>Chris draws a rough map <b>as</b> Philip talks</i>), such patterns as “go and…” (<i>Shall we <b>go and</b> see a film?</i>), “to do with” (<i>Anything t<b>o do with </b>sport</i>) etc. And I hope it wouldn’t be speaking out of turn to say that the idea behind the coursebook was what inspired Scott Thornbury’s <i>Natural Grammar</i> which was built around a similar principle: focusing on the "<a href="http://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/s-is-for-small-words/" target="_blank">small words</a>"&nbsp;of English and highlighting patterns associated with them.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>The Lexical Syllabus,</i> which you can find online in its entirety on the Birmingham University website, has a chapter which particularly stuck with me where Willis scrutinizes three features of pedagogic grammars:&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul><li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">The Passive voice</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">&nbsp;</span></li><li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">The Second conditional</span></li><li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Reported speech</span></li></ul><span dir="LTR" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"></span><br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">and concludes that they have needlessly been elevated to the status of syntactic structures and should instead be treated lexically. Three years later, Lewis (1993) would go on to claim that these labels – together with Will as the future tense - should be abandoned from grammar books altogether not stopping short of calling them “nonsense”. But it was Willis who first pointed out that English is a lexical language:</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq">It is perhaps particularly unfortunate that English has for so long been described in terms of a Latinate grammar derived from a highly inflected language, when English itself is quite different, a minimally inflected language. Obviously I would not claim that there is nothing more to English than word meaning, but it does seem that <b>word meaning and word order are central to English</b> in a way that may not hold true for other languages.(Willis 1990: 23, my emphasis)</blockquote><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><o:p></o:p></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="240" src="http://chiasuanchong.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/img_0030.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dave Willis at IATEFL Glasgow 2012<br />Photo by <a href="http://chiasuanchong.com/2012/03/26/my-iatefl-glasgow-diary-part-4-dave-willis-on-grammar/" target="_blank">Chia Suan Chong</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><o:p><br /></o:p></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">In his IATEFL Harrogate 2010 talk <i>What do we mean by 'grammar''?</i>,&nbsp;which I was lucky to listen to live (I also enjoyed a nice chat with Dave at a reception that evening), he insightfully noted that we spend an awful lot of time on teaching “easy” aspects of grammar and largely leave the learner to work out truly difficult bits by themselves. As an example he gave multi-part verbs which can be separable (<i>look smth up</i> or <i>look up smth</i>) or inseparable (<i>look after smb</i>) - a real minefield for a teacher! Interestingly, students somehow pick them up without our involvement – have you ever heard a student say “look somebody after”? So can we really claim that we teach grammar if all we do is select the easy bits – and spend on them an unproportional amount of class time - while casually avoiding truly complicated areas?</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><br /></div>It is for insights like this, his criticism of the grammatical syllabus and innovative approach to language teaching that I consider Willis a lexical pioneer to whom we owe a debt of gratitude.<br /><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><b><span style="color: #783f04;">References</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; line-height: 150%; margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 150%;">Lewis, M. (1993). <i>The Lexical Approach: The State of <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">ELT</st1:place></st1:state> and a Way Forward</i><span style="font-size: small;">. Hove: </span><span class="apple-style-span">LTP</span><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; line-height: 150%; margin: 6pt 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Willis, D. (1990). </span><i>The Lexical Syllabus</i><span style="font-size: small;">. </span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city>: Collins</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-23798221492988051352013-10-09T19:20:00.001+01:002014-11-29T21:58:32.474+00:00Learners' use of collocations: insights from the research<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3447/3293117576_05f43d8305.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3447/3293117576_05f43d8305.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjpacres/with/3293117576/" target="_blank">jjpacres</a>&nbsp;via Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]</td></tr></tbody></table><i>I often cite research in my talks so in this series of posts I would like to share some interesting studies which looked at how second language (L2) learners use collocations. This post reviews three studies</i><i>&nbsp;which sought to answer, among others, the following questions:</i><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /><b><i>1. At what level of proficiency are learners more likely to make collocational errors?&nbsp;</i></b><br /><b><i><br /></i></b><b><i>2. To what extent are learner’s errors caused by negative transfer (aka interference) from L1? </i></b><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><i><br /></i></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB">One of the most widely cited studies on the topic (283 citations according to Google Scholar) was conducted in Germany by Nadja Nesselhauf. Nesselhauf investigated how advanced level students use verb+noun collocations (e.g. <i>raise the question of</i>, <i>perform a task</i> or <i>conduct a study -</i> from the previous sentence). After analysing more than 30 essays which were written by L2 German students and judged by native speakers she concluded that advanced learners have considerable difficulties producing correct verbs in verb-noun collocations. Their essays often included infelicitous combinations such as *<i>make homework </i>and<i> *close lacks</i> which she attributes to the negative transfer from L1 much more than earlier studies had suggested.<b> </b>In fact, L1 influence was responsible for <b>more than half of all the learner errors</b> in th</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB">e essays under study. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB">In their study of Hebrew and Arabic-speaking students of different levels of proficiency Batia Laufer and Tina Waldman also concluded that negative transfer from L1 was one of the main factors in producing incorrect L2 collocations. A</span></span><span lang="EN-GB">bout 1/3 of all (attempted) collocations produced <span class="apple-style-span">i</span>n the large sample of learner writing were deviant.<span class="apple-style-span"> The sample included argumentative and descriptive essays by learners at three levels of proficiency (basic – Middle school, intermediate – High school and advanced – University). What is interesting is that the <b>number of collocational errors increased with the level of proficiency</b>.&nbsp;</span></span>The researchers attribute it to the fact that collocations are often semantically transparent when encountered in texts and learners tend to overlook them. They <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: small;">stress the importance of contrastive analysis in class in order to raise learners' awareness of different collocational patterns in L1 and English, for example drawing students' attention that in English we </span><i>make a decision </i><span style="font-size: small;">while the same meaning is expressed by </span><i>prendre une decision </i><span style="font-size: small;">("take a decision) in French or </span><i>prinyat resheniye</i> ("receive/host a decision") in Russian. See more examples in the tables below:</span></span><br /><span class="apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br /><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="background: #BFBFBF; border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-background-themecolor: background1; mso-background-themeshade: 191; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-insideh-themecolor: text1; mso-border-insideh-themetint: 128; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid #7F7F7F; mso-border-insidev-themecolor: text1; mso-border-insidev-themetint: 128; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid #7F7F7F; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="border: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-themetint: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 113.4pt;" valign="top" width="151"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">English<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-themetint: 128; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-themetint: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 165.85pt;" valign="top" width="221"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Russian<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-themetint: 128; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-themetint: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 153.65pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">German<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> </tr><tr> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-top-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-themetint: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 113.4pt;" valign="top" width="151"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">make a decision<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-bottom-themetint: 128; mso-border-left-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-themetint: 128; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themetint: 128; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-top-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-themetint: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 165.85pt;" valign="top" width="221"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">prinyat resheniye<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-bottom-themetint: 128; mso-border-left-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-themetint: 128; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themetint: 128; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-top-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-themetint: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 153.65pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">eine Entscheidung treffen<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr><tr style="height: 7.6pt; mso-yfti-irow: 2; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; height: 7.6pt; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-top-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-themetint: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 113.4pt;" valign="top" width="151"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 7.6pt; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-bottom-themetint: 128; mso-border-left-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-themetint: 128; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themetint: 128; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-top-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-themetint: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 165.85pt;" valign="top" width="221"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">receive/host a decision<o:p></o:p></span></i></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 7.6pt; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-bottom-themetint: 128; mso-border-left-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-themetint: 128; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themetint: 128; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-top-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-themetint: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 153.65pt;" valign="top" width="205"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">meet a decision<o:p></o:p></span></i></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br /><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="background: #BFBFBF; border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-background-themecolor: background1; mso-background-themeshade: 191; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-insideh-themecolor: text1; mso-border-insideh-themetint: 128; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid #7F7F7F; mso-border-insidev-themecolor: text1; mso-border-insidev-themetint: 128; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid #7F7F7F; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="border: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-themetint: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 113.4pt;" valign="top" width="151"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">English<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-themetint: 128; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-themetint: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="222"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">French<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> <td style="border-left: none; border: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-themetint: 128; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-themetint: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 153.0pt;" valign="top" width="204"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hebrew<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> </tr><tr> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-top-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-themetint: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 113.4pt;" valign="top" width="151"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">meet requirements<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-bottom-themetint: 128; mso-border-left-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-themetint: 128; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themetint: 128; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-top-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-themetint: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="222"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">répondre aux exigences<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-bottom-themetint: 128; mso-border-left-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-themetint: 128; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themetint: 128; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-top-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-themetint: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 153.0pt;" valign="top" width="204"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">la'amod bedrishot<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr><tr> <td style="border-top: none; border: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-top-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-themetint: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 113.4pt;" valign="top" width="151"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-bottom-themetint: 128; mso-border-left-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-themetint: 128; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themetint: 128; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-top-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-themetint: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="222"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">respond to the requirements<o:p></o:p></span></i></div></td> <td style="border-bottom: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid #7F7F7F 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-bottom-themetint: 128; mso-border-left-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-themetint: 128; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themetint: 128; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themetint: 128; mso-border-top-alt: solid #7F7F7F .5pt; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-themetint: 128; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 153.0pt;" valign="top" width="204"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">stand in the requirements<o:p></o:p></span></i></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><br /><span class="apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB">Despite seemingly convincing evidence that collocational errors are almost always caused by L1 transfer, Ying Wang and Philip Shaw came to a different conclusion in their study. Once again the focus was on verb+noun collocations but this time two groups were compared: Swedish and Chinese learners of English. Their results revealed that </span></span>learners’ mistakes <b>were quite similar despite their vastly different L1s</b>. The researchers attribute it to intralingual factors, i.e. factors inherent in the language being learnt,&nbsp;for example overgeneralization or misapplication of a rule,&nbsp;rather than stemming from L1 transfer. One such factor could be the learners’ tendency to resort to general words (e.g.&nbsp;<i>do, make, put</i>) rather than words of specific meaning, which sometimes works just as fine, for example <i>make a visit </i>as an alternative to <i>pay a visit</i> but oftentimes result in an error, for example&nbsp;<i>*do a threat</i> instead of <i>pose a threat.</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: #783f04;">L1 transfer or inadequate teaching?</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So where does this leave us? Certainly L1 has a role to play and transfer is inevitable especially when learners aren’t aware that certain words that can be combined in their L1 cannot be combined in English. Not having the right English collocation in their lexicon, they resort to word-for-word translation from L1 producing as a result such infelicities as <i>*strong rain</i> or <i>*use a chance.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />But the reason may also be their lack of awareness of the phenomenon of collocation, specifically collocational restrictions on word use and collocational differences between English and their L1. So while it’s easy to blame L1, lexical errors may also stem from the lack of explicit focus on collocations in the class or teaching materials. So teachers should take some responsibility too.</span><span class="apple-style-span"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: inherit;">References</span></b></div></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Laufer, B. &amp; Waldman, T. (2011). Verb-noun collocations in second language writing: a corpus analysis of learners’ English. <i>Language Learning, 61</i>(2), 647-672</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nesselhauf, N. (2003). The use of collocations by advanced learners of English and some implications for teaching. <i>Applied Linguistics, 24</i>(2), 223–242</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Wang, Y. &amp; Shaw, P. (2008). Transfer and universality: Collocation use in advanced Chinese and Swedish learner English. <i>ICAME Journal 32, </i>201-228 </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="apple-style-span"><br /></span></span> Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-10652425542197714172013-09-14T18:58:00.002+01:002013-09-14T19:38:28.739+01:00The highway to fluency and a roundabout way to grammar<div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1241/5142349964_a90609fb03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1241/5142349964_a90609fb03.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/5142349964/" target="_blank">@GoldsteinBen</a> via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/" target="_blank">eltpics</a> on Flickr</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">A second lesson with two new pre-intermediate (A2) students (I usually put my private students in&nbsp;pairs). In the first lesson we read three stories about immigrants (from <i>Innovations Pre-Intermediate</i>) and underlined useful bits of language (I hadn't introduced the word "chunk" yet). For our second lesson they were asked to prepare a short talk about their lives using as much "useful language" as they could – no writing! They did a pretty good job and successfully integrated some chunks into their stories:</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i>Back home…<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i>When I came over here…<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i>I didn't have enough money<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i>To support my family<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /><a name='more'></a><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">Naturally, their attempts to produce their own, novel utterances almost invariably caused disfluency as they searched for the right words to express their ideas and the right grammar to frame their words.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">Fluency is not so much speaking fast as pausing less, as Thornbury (2005) aptly observes. To avoid pauses, competent language users draw on a range of multi-word combinations, i.e. chunks, stored in the brain as holistic units. Rather than building sentences from scratch every time every time we want to say something we retrieve from memory (often fully grammaticalised) prefabricated sequences of words. These can range from short fixed phrases (e.g. <i>in brief</i>, <i>all in all)</i> to collocations (e.g. <i>book a ticket</i>, <i>vastly different</i>) to long lexico-grammatical chunks (e.g. <i>I haven't see you for ages, How can I help you?</i>)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">Dechert (as cited in Schmidt 1992) refers to these formulaic sequences as <b>"islands of reliablility"</b> using which the speaker can save processing effort and concentrate on <b>what</b> they want to say without losing the turn in conversation. In the last 20-30 years their role has been recognized in the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research as being central to fluent and appropriate language production. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1208/5122775287_00deb15634.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1208/5122775287_00deb15634.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/5122775287/" target="_blank">@InglesInteract</a>&nbsp;via&nbsp;<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/" target="_blank">eltpics</a>&nbsp;on Flickr</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">Leonardo Gomes, who goes on Twitter by the nick @leoxical – a play on words similar to the name of this blog, recently started a discussion on Facebook about the role of chunks in the language classroom and referred to chunk learning as <b>"the highway to fluency"</b>. You can see the discussion <a href="https://diigo.com/013qpb" target="_blank">here</a> (Facebook login required, sorry!).<br /><br />Whereas there seemed to be an agreement on the crucial role chunks play in promoting fluency, the sticking point of the debate was whether chunks can aid acquisition of knowledge of grammar. There have been suggestions in the SLA literature that chunks first learned as unanalyzed wholes are eventually analysed and generalised into rules, thus providing a roundabout way into mastery of grammar.<br /><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">For example, a beginner learner of English may learn "<i>Let's go!</i>" holistically, i.e. understanding its meaning and use without necessarily understanding the role of <i>let's</i> in the imperative form or even the meaning of the verb<i> let </i>for that matter. After subsequent encounters with other imperative sentences with <i>let's</i>, e.g. <i>let's do it</i>, <i>let's get some pizza</i> etc they can abstract the rule for the imperative form. Then, later, they may understand that <i>let's</i> is a contracted form of <i>let us</i>. Similarly, <i>I don't know</i> can be taught as a chunk without delving into the role of <i>do+not</i> in the formation of the present simple negative. In brief, internalisation of chunks precedes analysis.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">This is what has been convincingly and abundantly shown to be the case in L1 acquisition. Evidence that the same is true in L2 learning is less plentiful but nevertheless convincing. Some studies – most of them focusing on early childhood learners – have shown that new language is often learned as unanalysed chunks and broken down for analysis later on. For example<span lang="EN-GB">, Myles, Mitchell &amp; Hooper (1998) tracked spoken output of English learners of French over a period of two years and concluded that learners relied heavily on memorised chunks (for example "Comment t’appelles-tu?" – <i>What's your name?</i> or literally <i>What are you called?</i>) in early production but gradually broke them down into constituent parts. Moreover, they used parts of the chunks – often inappropriately in the early stages (e.g. "Comment t’appelles-tu, le garcon?" –*<i>What are you called, the boy?</i>&nbsp;instead of <i>what is he called?</i>) – to construct novel utterances.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; margin-left: 9pt; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Perera's (2001) findings also support the view that chunk learning can aid grammar acquisition. She studied four Japanese learners of English who created new phrases by using memorised chunks as templates rather than combining individual words. </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have an example of a student who learned the Past Perfect as a chunk "<i>…better than I'd expected</i>" before starting to slot in other verbs: "<i>better than I'd hoped for</i>", "<i>better than I'd imagined</i>". Or a group of students who first learned the expression <i>Mind you</i> as part of a longer chunk "<i>Mind you, it is convenient</i>" and later went on to unpack <i>Mind you</i> and start using it in other situations, e.g. "<i>Mind you, it's cheap</i>"<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Do you have examples from your classroom where learners memorised a chunk and later used it to generate new sentences? Were they adult or young learners? Do you do anything to encourage this habit?</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span lang="EN-GB"><b><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: inherit;">References</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">Myles, F, Mitchell, R &amp; Hooper, J. (1999). Interrogative chunks in French L2: A basis for creative construction? <i>Studies in Second Language Acquisition 21</i>, 49–80</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><span lang="EN-GB">Perera</span></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB">, <st1:state w:st="on">N.S.</st1:state></span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB"> (2001). The role of prefabricated language in young children’s second language acquisition. <i>Bilingual Research Journal 25</i>(3), 327–356</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">Schmidt, R. (1992). Psychological mechanisms underlying language fluency.&nbsp;<i>Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 14</i>,&nbsp;357-385</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: inherit;">Thornbury, S. (2005). Appropriation and autonomy. <i>English Teaching Professional, 40</i>, 11-14</span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div></span></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-15117516295925135982013-08-18T12:04:00.000+01:002014-01-16T10:13:42.965+00:00Lettuce, olives and other things<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GGeYEiZSop0/UhCbOZzU5mI/AAAAAAAAAa0/JKyUfUnOZpE/s1600/olives.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GGeYEiZSop0/UhCbOZzU5mI/AAAAAAAAAa0/JKyUfUnOZpE/s200/olives.jpg" height="163" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span lang="EN-GB">By @eannegrenoble |&nbsp;<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/">eltpics</a>&nbsp;on Flickr</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">In the middle of the market where I go for my weekly vegetable shopping there is a stall where I buy olives. The owners of the stall are a husband and wife team who know I am an English teacher. The other day the wife – let's call her Lily&nbsp;–&nbsp;pointed at lettuce and asked me:<br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">"What do you call it in English?" (the exchange took place in Hebrew)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">"Lettuce," I replied.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">"Letters?" asked Lily.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">We then worked on the pronunciation a little until she got it right. I thought it was time to move on to new items. I pointed at olives.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /><a name='more'></a>"And what's this in English?" I asked. Lily looked puzzled. "Come on. You have a bottle over there with a label in English".</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">"Olives!" exclaimed Lily – she clearly knew "Olive oil" in English.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">A week later it's time for my next trip to the market and a little vocabulary review. "Do you remember the words from last week?" I asked Lily who glanced at the lettuce, tried to retrieve the word from memory but drew a blank. And then, to my utter amazement, she delivered in English:</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i>"You see, I don't know English. Sometimes I remember, sometimes I forget."</i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">I was taken aback.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">"So you CAN speak English!"&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">Lily slipped back into Hebrew and bemoaned the fact she didn't know the names of basic things in English, pointing at the lettuce, olives and other produce in front of her.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s4ogZsd_i6A/UhCt5P1NOkI/AAAAAAAAAbM/6qFWDFxoY7Q/s1600/_MG_8112.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s4ogZsd_i6A/UhCt5P1NOkI/AAAAAAAAAbM/6qFWDFxoY7Q/s400/_MG_8112.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Carmel Market in Tel Aviv where the story took place.<br />Photo by Tzvi Meller</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">This conversation made me think about how people perceive what constitutes knowing a language. The fact that Lily could produce fluently – and correctly "Sometimes I remember, sometimes I forget" didn't seem to matter vis-a-vis her frustration at not knowing single words such as "lettuce" or "olives". Like many others, my olive lady labours under the assumption that knowing a language is primarily knowing names of things.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">It also put me in mind of my Spanish teacher who once gave us a list of 50 names of different food items to learn. The only two I still remember are "gamba" (prawn) and "cerveza" (beer). I only remembered "gamba" because the same word in Hebrew means "pepper" and "cerveza" because… well, just because. The whole list proved rather useless when I arrived in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Spain</st1:country-region> because most restaurants had English menus. The difficulty was communicating with waiters and saying things like:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i>"Can I have…?"<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i>"Do you have…?"<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i>"For starters…"</i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">and other, similar transactional expressions.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">Learning at elementary levels tends to involve a lot of lists - food names, animals, furniture – all mainly nouns! and lack functional phrases to put these nouns into. Even at higher levels students often think that knowing the words "screwdriver", "hole punch" or "garlic crusher" is more important than being able to say:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i>"it's a <b>thing</b> you open bottles <b>with</b>"<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i>"it's a <b>thing</b> you stick papers together <b>with</b>"</i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">which I find even upper intermediate students struggle with. (My students often say "it’s a thing to open bottles with it"). Interestingly, when native speakers have "tip-of-the-tongue" moments, it is the names of things they tend to forget and not phrases like the ones above which, together with the all-purpose words "thing" and "stuff", give them much more mileage, for instance:</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><i>Can you pass me that garlic thing, please?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">Why do you think the notion that knowing a language is all about knowing names of things is so prevalent? Do you think we spend too much time teaching names of objects and not enough time on functional language? Do you teach students how to paraphrase and use other circumlocutory strategies (in order to compensate for gaps in their lexical knowledge)?</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">I would like to hear your comments and thoughts on the topic.</div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-30817483468640777392013-08-17T11:17:00.001+01:002013-08-17T11:25:54.396+01:00A thank you letter from students<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>One of the pleasures of <a href="http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2013/01/start-teaching-lexically.html?utm_source=BP_recent" target="_blank">teaching lexically</a> is when you see your students starting to incorporate i</i></span><i>nto their speech and writing</i><i style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;lexical chunks studied in class - albeit&nbsp;</i><i style="font-family: inherit;">not always appropriately</i><i style="font-family: inherit;">. Here is a thank you letter I recently received from my students at the end of a course.</i><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b></b></i></span><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>Reproduced here verbatim</b></i></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><br /><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;"> <tbody><tr style="height: 330.15pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="background: #CCCCCC; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 330.15pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 426.1pt;" valign="top" width="568"><div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-GB">Leo<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-GB">How many years have you been our teacher? Actually, we really don't know, what we know is that you are our best teacher and we love you admire you and want you to be our teacher forever.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-GB">It is not easy to teach three old persons for so many years, but you don’t try to get rid of us you don't stick to rules or concept except collocations. You try every year to come up with new approach, a new method, and new ideas. You do a lot that every lesson will be uplifting and a little bit heavy. You have the talent to get through to your students about the importance of remembering the collocations. We all get on with each&nbsp;other very well and there's never a dull moment with you.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-GB">For the next year we all promise to:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-GB">Crack down on coming late to the lesson&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-GB">Resist the temptation of not doing homework<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-GB">Bring to class pastry for every lesson&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="text-align: left;"><span dir="LTR" lang="EN-GB">And go over and over the all collocation during the vacation so we'll come perfectly ready for the New Year.<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Can you spot the collocations we've been looking at with the students?</span>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5759462792103754770.post-78800646788179612642013-07-13T17:59:00.001+01:002013-12-19T22:29:50.206+00:00Honouring Penny Ur, OBE<div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F48djI_Xb_4/UeGMWzZk7eI/AAAAAAAAAZk/Dt5qKK1L48I/s1600/Penny_&amp;_the_Queen.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F48djI_Xb_4/UeGMWzZk7eI/AAAAAAAAAZk/Dt5qKK1L48I/s200/Penny_&amp;_the_Queen.png" width="155" /></a>Penny Ur was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Order of the <st1:place w:st="on">British Empire</st1:place>) for services to English Language Teaching earlier this year and as my last gig for the British Council I organised an event in her honour at the annual summer&nbsp;<a href="http://etai.org.il/" target="_blank">ETAI</a> conference in Jerusalem. Knowing that events of this kind can easily slide into a sentimental outpouring of endless congratulations and knowing that Penny is not the kind of person who would like that, we were keen to keep it professional, elegant and not too gooey (Amanda Caplan, personal communication, 22 March 2013).<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /><a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">The event opened with footage from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Windsor</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Castle</st1:placetype></st1:place> showing Penny receive her award from the Queen. At this point, quite unexpectedly, the packed house broke into a rapturous applause. We wanted to avoid soppiness but this was indeed very emotional and I swear quite a few of us had tears in our eyes. After the standing ovation had subsided, Caron Sethill, Deputy Director of the British Council Israel officially opened the event with a short speech congratulating Penny on her achievement. This was followed by five speakers delivering short papers devoted mainly to Penny Ur's books.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">Amanda Caplan shared with us a few activities and tips from Penny's recently republished<a href="http://www.cambridge.org/gb/elt/catalogue/subject/project/pricing/isbn/item6592952/?site_locale=en_GB" target="_blank"> "Vocabulary Activities"</a>. Nava Horovitz, Penny's long-time friend and collaborator &nbsp;talked about teachers' notes in <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/gb/elt/catalogue/subject/project/pricing/isbn/item1129925/?site_locale=en_GB" target="_blank">"Discussions that Work"</a> in her presentation entitled "Penny's gems". Jeremy Day was up next and he shared his experience of working with Penny on the <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/gb/elt/catalogue/subject/project/item6049573/Active-Grammar/?site_locale=en_GB" target="_blank"><i>Active Grammar</i> series</a>. The last two papers were devoted to Penny's articles. Michele Ben, chair of ETAI, talked about the importance of <a href="http://fagtema.dk/fag/engelsk/3-4/artikler/pdf/penny_ur.pdf">crap-detecting</a>which she learned from Penny. Finally I provided my interpretation of Penny's 1997 article <a href="http://etprofessional.com/the_english_teacher_as_professional_2444.aspx">"The English Teacher as Professional"</a> in my Pecha-Kucha 20x20 style presentation.<br /><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;">The lights went out again and we watched a celebratory video montage put together by my colleague Linda (immense thanks once again!)<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/I05ZXDAkmyk" width="420"></iframe><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Greetings from teachers and colleagues from all over the world really overwhelmed the heroine of the day and she was literally speechless when she got up on the stage. Penny confessed that she rarely stumbles for words but that was a rare occasion she did.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br /></div>The event turned out exactly the way I envisaged: tasteful, professional and entertaining - with just a dash of sentimentality thrown in. Many thanks to everyone who helped me organise it.<br /><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><o:p></o:p></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QaEEIkX6boo/UeGGXw1KLFI/AAAAAAAAAZU/bYfzzg2Tq9w/s1600/Penny+emotional.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QaEEIkX6boo/UeGGXw1KLFI/AAAAAAAAAZU/bYfzzg2Tq9w/s400/Penny+emotional.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Manar Yacoub</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">For photos from the event, click <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.613958568629211.1073741831.124935004198239&amp;type=1" target="_blank">here</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">For my other conference reports from ETAI 2013, click <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/etaiconferencenewsflash2013/wednesday-july-10th/15-00---16-00-closing-plenary" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/etaiconferencenewsflash2013/wednesday-july-10th/10-30-11-15-session-i/aviva-shapiro-listening-learning-language" target="_blank">here</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" dir="LTR" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"></div>Leohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16077987567636970527noreply@blogger.com14